BADLY DONE, MG! YOU KNOW YOU MUSTN'T LINGER ON ROMANTICIZING

Robert Pattinson - Reese Witherspoon

I've been watching romantic movies all afternoon and I've been so moody and melancholic while trying to work till now. "Badly done, MG! (Austenesque echoes?) You know you mustn't do it when you have to work on correction and planning lessons. Too distracting"  

The voice of my conscience. I tried to ignore it and forced myself to do some work all the same. Very little, in fact. So, I thought I may share what I saw with you. Maybe, I can stop fancying about languid, sensual, romantic love stories and go back working a bit. 

You know I love both reading and watching romantic movies. Strange is I wasn't like this in my younger age. The more I grow old, the more I become sensitive and fond of silly romantic stuff. Is there a treatment, a cure? Well, is it a disease? Something I should worry about? Let me know, if you think so. Any suggestion will be well accepted. 

DEADLY AFFAIR BY LUCINDA BRANT - BOOK REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

Synopsis - Career diplomat Alec Halsey has been elevated to a marquessate he doesn’t want and Polite Society believes he doesn't deserve; his lover has decided she won’t marry him after all and the suspicion he murdered his brother still lingers in London drawing rooms. So returning to London after seven months' seclusion may have been a mistake.

Alec’s foreboding deepens when a nobody vicar drops dead at a party-political dinner; he witnesses the very public humiliation of an up and coming portrait painter, and his rabble-rousing uncle Plantagenet is bashed and left for dead in a laneway. When the vicar's true identity is revealed, Alec suspects the man was poisoned. But who would want a seemingly harmless man of God murdered, and why?

Once you meet Alec Halsey you can’t avoid being charmed, if not totally under his spell. What I most like in him is that, although living in Georgian London, he refuses to wear a powdered wig and has a passionate, free spirit. But, honestly, who could ignore his being tall, handsome, and blue-eyed, with long black curls and olive skin?

SOME BLOGGING AT LAST: CONCUPISCENCE & LITERARY VENTRILOQUISM

I've had some spare time to catch up with and read some interesting blogs and articles today. Well, better to say I've neglected some duties and chores (I was really fed-up of correcting and assessing tests and questionnaires, I've been doing that for days!)  and I've spent some time reading good stuff online this afternoon. I'd like to share with you the best posts I've found.

You may think I'm biased since I know the two talented lady writers, authors of the two brilliant pieces but I'm not. So, if you don't trust the objectivity of my words, just click on the links and check yourself!

BAFTA TV AWARDS TONIGHT - WILL MY FAVOURITES WIN THIS TIME?

Richard Armitage & Miranda Raison (Baftas 2009)

The Bafta  TV Awards Ceremony is tonight at the Southbank Centre in London. It will be broadcast on BBC1 from 8.00 p.m. Here are all  the nominees in the different categories.

I've always followed this event with curiosity and great expectations in the last few years hoping my favourite series and actors won. Though has never actually happened. it was worth it all the same since,  at least,  I got new pictures, videos and some times interviews of Richard Armitage taking part in the ceremony, though only to give the prize to someone else (on the left)

I'll have a look at the show on BBC1 tonight to support Dame Maggie Smith and Benedict Cumberbatch, hoping they get the recognition they deserve.

They've been nominated as Best Leading Actress and Best Leading Actor respectively for their roles as Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey (ITV 1) and Sherlock Holmes in BBC1 Sherlock. 

Sherlock series 2 has been already honoured with three BAFTA TV Craft Awards: Sherlock won awards for best sound: fiction, best editing  fiction and best writer (Steven Moffat  for the wonderful A Scandal in Belgravia). 

I WON'T MISS IT! DICKENS AND HIS INVISIBLE WOMAN

After directing and starring in Coriolanus based on Shakespeare's Roman drama, Ralph Fiennes directs and stars as Charles Dickens in THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, film adaptation of Claire Tomaline's book of the same name. The movie is due to release in 2013 and tells about the affair between the famous writer and the beautiful young actress Ellen Ternan (Felicity Jones, Hysteria, Northanger Abbey).

Abi Morgan (Shame) has adapted Claire Tomalin‘s novel, which tells of the 13-year affair between Dickens and Nelly Ternan, a woman who was 27 years  the author’s junior. Tom Hollander (as the author Wilkie Collins) and Kristin Scott Thomas   (as Nelly's mother)  are also in  the cast.

MEETING MR DARCY - GUEST POST BY KIM IZZO AT MY JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB

I just want to share a link to a guest post narrating an awkward meeting with Mr Darcy in person - in the person of Colin Firth - in my page dedicated to the British actor here at FLY HIGH   I know I have been neglecting it for a while but I've just added this lovely blogpost: Kim Izzo, Canadian journalist and writer, met Colin Firth in order to interview him, during The Toronto Film Festival some years ago. 

She shares  the memories of that moment,  which was a bit embarassing but unforgettable, at my Jane Austen-dedicated blog, My Jane Austen Book Club.

Read Meeting Mr Darcy by Kim Izzo and get a chance to read her debut novel, The Jane Austen Marriage Manual. There's a giveaway contest! (Deadline May 23)

CLICK HERE

IN SEARCH FOR HOPE WHILE THE EARTH QUAKES AND INNOCENT GIRLS ARE SLAUGHTERED OUTSIDE THEIR SCHOOL

Melissa Bassi, 16, died in a bomb blast last Saturday

The news from Italy have been terrible this weekend. I guess they got to you all somehow. It has been a tragic, terribly sad end of the week for all of us, though not directly involved in those tragedies.

7:40 a.m. Saturday 19 May  - One student has been killed and seven others injured in a suspected mafia bomb blast at a school in southern Italy. Her name was Melissa Bassi. She was only 16. 

I shared my thoughts on facebook as soon as I heard about it: "As a mother and a teacher I'm stunned, speechless, horrified. It's been a long time since I last felt proud to live in my beautiful difficult country. When   was it? Why was that? Today I must feel sorrowful and ashamed again. Please don't tell me there are crazy people everywhere. I know that."

READING ABOUT RICHARD III ON BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE ( MAY ISSUE)

Look at this bizarre cover (left). Actually, I was not  attracted by it but by the central title: Richard III. Why Shakespeare made him a devil. Yes, this is the question we've wondered about more than once in our Ricardian quest: Why did Shakespeare make him a devil? Why did he choose to depict the last Plantagenet king, dead at Bosworth defending his crown against Richmond (future king Henry VII) in 1485, as the archetype of the tyrannical usurper and the most wicked  of his  villains? 

His Tragedy of Richard III,  was first performed on an Elizabethan stage in 1592-93 among religious tensions, fears of civil war and foreign invasion provoked by the unresolved succession to Queen Elizabeth I. The queen was then 60 years old, single, childless and king  James VI of Scotland would succeed her on the throne after her death in 1603. 

Shakespeare's Tragedy of Richard III was so influential that it characterized and shaped how history would look at those events for the centuries to come. But it's time we know why that happened , if there is a why.

VICTORIA CONNELLY, THE RUNAWAY ACTRESS - GIVEAWAY WINNERS

2 copies, 2 winners! Are you ready? If you commented my interview with Victoria Connelly, you may be one of the two lucky ones. First of all, let me thank the lovely author and her generous publicist at Avon- Harper Collins for this double giveaway. Then,  I'm definitely ready to reveal the names of the two winners:

I'VE BEEN WATCHING POLDARK (1975)

Robin Ellis as Ross Poldark

In Italy it was broadcast in 1978 and I still remember how excited I was waiting for a new episode! And I can't forget my teenage crush on Ross Poldark in his elegant breeches and coat, but especially on young doctor Enys. How young I was myself at that time and already in love with everything English!  I usually don't like watching period series from the 70s, I find them so freak, awkward. I can't cope with the  old shooting techniques or the unnatural, melodramatic acting style they propose. But, was my nostalgic mood forgiving all the flaws or was this series quite good, instead? I think it was, it still  is a very good period drama. You must of course bear the grain quality so different from the  HD quality images we are accustomed to these days.

BOOK REVIEW - JAMES SHAPIRO, 1599 A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

I know one is not expected to tell the story of where her copy of the book comes from in a professional review but this is something I especially like in the books from my shelves. When I open one of them, on the first page available there’s always a pencil note (or an ex-libris sticker) reminding me where and when I got the copy, when I read it.  

As for this book, which is one of the latest ones I read, I bought it in London in December 2010, just outside the Old Vic, while I was trying to spend the few minutes left before entering the theatre and reaching my seat. It was too embarassing to stand there inside alone among the chattering crowd in the lounge, so I decided to go out again and got to the bookshop just across the road where I couldn't resist the charms books always have on me. I bought 3 ones. 

After that,  I went back to the theatre carrying a  little plastic bag  (not very elegant I know) containing my new treasures and felt less lonely among the crowd.

Time to write about the book, now! First of all, when I bought it, I thought it was a novel, I don't know why, but that was what I expected. The first sentence in the blurb misled me:

AUTHOR INTERVIEW - VICTORIA CONNELLY, THE RUNAWAY ACTRESS. WIN A COPY OF THE BOOK!

From Harper Collins official site: When the stresses of being an A-list actress get too much for her, Connie Gordon decides to escape to a tiny Scottish village. But little does she realise that whilst Lochnabrae might be quiet, it’s far from sleepy…

Beautiful, rich, famous – and seriously stressed, actress Connie Gordon is ready for a change. Deciding to accept an invitation from her fan club in Scotland, Connie kisses goodbye to her ex-boyfriends, stalkers and double-crossing agents, and prepares herself for complete relaxation. But swapping the Hollywood Hills for the Highlands of Scotland doesn’t make for the easiest of transitions and, when she meets local playwright, Alastair McInnes, who’s sworn he’ll never become involved with another actress again, sparks fly, and the sleepy village of Lochnabrae will never be the same again. Get your running shoes on to catch the latest hilarious, charming and utterly engaging novel from Victoria Connelly, chick-lit’s answer to Richard Curtis!

Victoria Connelly at Chawton Cottage Garden

Read my interview with the lovely author of this new book,  Victoria Connelly.  Leave your comment and your e-mail address to enter a giveaway contest for 2 copies of the book  provided by the publishers, Harper Collins. Two copies, two winners! Open worldwide, this giveaway will end on May 12. 

In your “The Perfect Hero" (UK) / “Dreaming of Mr Darcy” (US),  the protagonist met a troupe shooting a costume movie as they stay at her B&B. Your heroine this time, Connie Gordon, belongs  to the Hollywood star system. Are you especially fascinated by the movies?

- I am!  I adore films and I’m fascinated with the whole process of being an actor.  I used to teach drama for a bit and there’s the tiniest bit of me that would like to be an actor.  I love listening to actors talking about inhabiting a role – the idea of becoming someone else is fascinating.  I guess there are similarities to being a writer and creating characters and I feel sure I’ll be writing more about actors in the future.

AT THE CINEMA - ROBERT PATTINSON IS BEL AMI

Bel Ami without his bewitching moustache? Well, good choice! 

Bel Ami, starring Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Christina Ricci, will be available on VOD in the United States on May 4. The period comedy-drama will debut in US theaters — via Magnolia Pictures — a little over a month later, on June 8, according to the film's website. 

Bel Ami had its official World Premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, though the film had already had special screenings in various Belgian cities. Reviews so far have been mixed. It  has been on  in Italian  theatres since  April 14.

Directed by stage veterans (but film newcomers) Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, Bel Ami was adapted by Rachel Bennette from Guy de Maupassant's 19th-century novel. The film's cast also includes Colm Meaney, Natalie Tena, Holliday Grainger, Pip Torrens, James Lance, and Todd Peterson. 

Synopsis: Georges Duroy travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.