To Eyre is human

Jane arrived! We watched all 4 episodes in one night and it was as we remembered - excellent. Michael Jayston as Rochester was perhaps angrier than Bronte portrayed him but I would have to re-read the book to be sure. It is missing the early episode with Jane as a young girl at Miss Reed's and Lowood but I hope we may find that somewhere . I do wish BBC would release it in a remastered commercial version on disc. It is so superior to the current interpretations available. I can hardly wait to share it with my daughter as I have been praising this version to the skies for years and since we could never find it I believe she doubts its existence.

Regarding Coastliners, I gather the reviews have been scathing. I think there is a real bias against books that are just a good read. I have to agree with one friend that it is not worth a re-read but I had no trouble getting involved in the story, and read it easily in a few days ( not quite " I couldn't put it down" but a lot better than "I had trouble finishing it") . I did find the writing a bit disappointing after my first flush of admiration and I haven't read her previous books so perhaps if I had I would agree with the criticism that it was to a formula. As to the criticism that its view of France was romanticised or inaccurate I have to say that I thought of the island as a fictional construct not as a literal part of France.

At my writing circle the other day I read a short piece I wrote in which I referred to Trollope. Our newest and youngest member did not know who I was referring to. This lady has the first draft of a novel written. I don't expect everyone to have read Trollope but I did rather expect that most people of a certain education and especially a wannabe writer would know of him.