AUTHOR INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY - ANNE O'BRIEN: ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE, QUEEN DEFIANT

Queen Defiant is Anne O’Brien’s novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine released in the US today, June 7th. It was previously published in the UK as Devil’s Consort.

Anne is back on Fly High after her previous interesting guest post "Mirror, mirror on the wall ..." , which was an inquiry about Eleanor's aspect. 

She  has kindly accepted to answer my questions about the queen she so much admires today and there is another exciting giveaway!

Giveaway

Commenting this interview you'll get the chance to win a signed  copy of  Queen Defiant. This contest is open internationally and ends on June 14th, when the name of the winner will be announced. Don't forget your e-mail address! 

P.S.

If Blogger gives you troubles while  leaving  your comments or logging in,  try using Google's Chrome browser . It works when none of the other browsers does ( Download Google's Chrome) 

If you can't log in and comment from any other browser, please send  an e-mail  to learnonline.mgs@gmail.com  saying you want to be entered this contest.

AN ACADEMIC VIEW OF BBC NORTH AND SOUTH - PART II

This is my second post in this series. After sharing with you the most interesting points in Margaret Harris's Taking Bearings: Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South Televised in a previous post, I'm now going to do the same with another essay.  The author is Dr David Kelly , he is Senior Lecturer at Sydney University, Department of English and  wrote "A View of North and South" in 2006.  

The opening pages are an interesting reflection on the theme: has the mini-series become the novel of today? 
"The home entertainment revolution has had a profound effect not only on our viewing but, perhaps surprisingly, on our reading habits. ...No doubt part of the attractions of the mini series for readers is that it has certain affinities with the novel - especially the classic realist novel - which give it  a number  of advantages over the feature film when it comes to the adaptation of literary classics... the television series leaves the viewer with a sense of aesthetic complexity and completion". (pp. 1 - 3) These and other thoughts on the different approaches to a classic either  of a feature film or of a long-running TV series were prompted by Dr Kelly's watching North and South (but not having read North and South!)

LOVE, LIFE, DEATH & WAR - WATCHING OLD (BUT NOT VERY OLD) MOVIES

Strangely enough, I've happened to watch several old movies lately, which, I'm sure, most of you saw in due time , that is, when they were released . Thanks to the pay-TV channels I usually neglect, to my best friend's and my elder son's recommendations, here I am with a series of ... "I've seen it, at last!". My impressions on watching Vanilla sky (1997), Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003) follow.

1. Vanilla Sky (1997)

Vanilla Sky is a 2001 remake of the great 1997 movie, Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes).  Tom Cruise plays David Aames, a selfish,  spoilt, rich  young man who takes other people's emotions for granted, and thinks only of himself. He is the one who will have to open his eyes on what really counts in   a  man's life, he will have to rediscover what to live means and make a final essential choice.  Jason Lee plays Brian Shelby, David's best friend , and in many ways, his only one, which underlines the extreme solitude and shallowness David leads his life in. Penelope Cruz plays Sofia Serrano, Brian's girlfriend whom accompanies him to David's birthday party. Cameron Diaz plays transgressive, volcanic Julie Gianni, David's occasional bed buddy. 

WHY IS THE PRESENT SO ATTRACTED TO THE PAST?

 

Thanks to Monica, one of my  latest acquaintances in the blogosphere, I got to read this article in The Guardian.co.uk by Mark Lawson. My friends know how hectic I am these days and are always ready to help me in the hard task of being an updated,  active blogger. Grateful thanks to them all!

This is a reflection about the success of and the great interest in filming the classics,  even when the same text is adapted for the umpteenth time. It's always the same, same old story would you say? You'll find out that many disagree with you.

RA-NDOM THOUGHTS - THANKS FOR BEING EXACTLY AS YOU ARE

I usually can't bear when I send an e-mail message and get no sign from the other side.    I start wondering: " Did they get it? Read it? Is everything ok? " .

I can understand we are all hecticly busy these days but "Got it, thanks a lot" would be nice enough as an answer. So, I thought it  might be fair  to answer the very special message we got yesterday. Others have already done it, while I didn't. So here I am and here's my answer. My very personal answer to ... Richard Armitage's message. (He sent it to all his fans through Annette's site) .  Ready for a laugh?

(picture on the left from http://armitage-online.ucoz.ru/)

(legenda : RA black  /  MG blue)

29th May 2011

Dear All,

I wanted to post a message to say a huge thank you for your generosity of donations to the Christchurch fundraiser on 22nd May, I gather there was a considerable contribution from members of our little community, which is gratefully received to help a rather larger and damaged community 'rise up' get back on its feet. I am so grateful and proud to see such support from so far away, you really are hugely reliable when it comes to those in need. Thank you. I hope our little teaser want too much of a tease, it is so difficult to give anything away, of the movie we are making but we had to do something; I have resisted signing anything 'Hobbity', until the film is finished (just a little bit superstitious) but I was very proud to add my name to the book for Christchurch.

ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE: A GREAT MEDIEVAL QUEEN. GUEST POST BY CHRISTY ENGLISH

Eleanor of Aquitaine and how she might have looked  was the fascinating subject of Anne O'Brien's guestblog exactly two weeks ago. Today, Christy English,  author of To Be Queen: A Novel of the Early Life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, is here to tell us something more about this great Medieval queen's personal history. Welcome on Fly High, Christy!

Eleanor of Aquitaine was queen in a time when men dominated the political scene. Raised as a young girl to be the heir to the duchy of Aquitaine, Eleanor always knew that she would have to marry in order to hold her territories safe from encroaching enemies. Literate in Latin and possibly some Greek, Eleanor was extremely educated, and unusual thing for a woman in the medieval period. Most medieval men never learned to read, save for the monks and priests of the Church. Noblemen and kings often had clerks trained by the Church to write their histories and their letters. But in Aquitaine, at the Court of Love established by her grandfather, noblemen and women learned to read and write in the langue d’oc, Eleanor’s native tongue.

RA-NDOM THOUGHTS - DO YOU SUFFER FROM THE SYNDROME OF THE LAST EPISODE?

I was reading this article about TV fans distressed without their favourite shows. I even found an Italian article which quotes the same study calling the distress "Syndrome of the last episode". I started thinking, "Isn't that I 've been so stressed and distressed lately  just because of that"? I may be, yes. 

First they wrapped-up Vicar of Dibley and I am here,  fingers crossed,  hoping they'll decide to shoot at least another special with Geraldine and her gorgeous husband, Harry Jasper Kennedy.

AT HOME WITH THE TEMPLETONS - BOOK REVIEW

Another Australian writer, a best-selling author, I've come to read thanks to my very active blogger life. Thanks a lot to the web and the Internet for the incredible richness and variety of contacts I've got so far, and especially, to Monica McInerney's publicist who thought I would like this novel and sent it to me. I did!

The main characters of this gripping novel are numerous and skillfully depicted but the real protagonist is a stately mansion in Victoria, Australia , which I imagine as enchanting, mesmerizing, impressive: Templeton Hall. 

Everything is not as it seems in this entertaining exploration of  family links and relationships, with romance and turmoil, and you need to get as far as the epilogue, through its 471 pages, to get hold of every hidden detail of the story you were told before.

A warm and captivating family saga that spans about twenty years - from 1993 to 2009 - and three continents in which the main theme explored is: how the things we do to protect our children may really just protect ourselves - with unintended and potentially devastating consequences. Other themes are redemption and forgiveness. Difficult to say which the lesson here is ultimately. Certainly, more than one. 

DEVIL'S CONSORT BY ANNE O'BRIEN - GIVEAWAY WINNER

Eleanore of Aquitaine seems to have drawn great interest among  you and Anne O'Brien's guestblog collected several comments of readers eager to get a copy of her DEVIL'S CONSORT. Here I am to announce the name of the winner, as well as to inform you that this amazing historical novel will be soon published in the US,  with a new title and a new cover, as QUEEN DEFIANT. Anne O'Brien is going to be my guest again on that occasion, on June 7th, with a Q/A post and you will be granted the chance to win a copy of the American edition.

Meanwhile, the signed copy of Devil's Consort has been won by ...

MARIE

Congratulations to the winner and thanks to everyone who entered this contest. 

Stay tuned! There will be other giveaways soon.

WHAT I'VE BEEN WATCHING - SOUTH RIDING

I've read very different reactions  to this series, very different reviews. Some extremely positive and some rather disappointed ones. I am totally drawn to its story and I loved almost anything, from the brilliant stellar cast to their characterization, from the setting to the costumes, from the plot to Andrew Davies 's screenplay. Maybe, that's because I, actually, didn't read the book, nor knew anything about it, but I really think this is the best series I've seen since the beginning of 2011. Better than Downton Abbey? Well, I liked it even more, I found it more deeply touching and less soap-opera style. A real BBC period production. 

At first, I was not sure I wanted to see it, since my friend K/V had more than once said, both about the novel (which she read) and about the series (that she saw before me): "So terribly depressing! Don't watch it if you are in a blue mood. It could worse the situation" . I usually love being moved to tears by stories I read or watch, I don't mind it at all. But her warning made me imagine a gloomy, dark, hopeless, tragic melodrama which BBC SOUTH RIDING is not. It is romantic, melancholic, even tragic but not hopeless, not gloomy. I just loved it.