Took a day out to visit my brother down in Eastbourne as it was his birthday. We had afternoon tea and a wander along the seafront and finally the sun came out. I bought my brother a present and he bought mine - a late 60th birthday gift. I had decided on a new badminton raquet as my old one (40 years old!) finally broke a few months ago.
I have finally finished London by Edward Rutherfurd. It has been a marathon read and I'm not keen to read another long book for a while, especially as I had to interrupt my reading to read other things like the book for book club and of course it was too heavy to carry around (no I will NOT get a kindle!).
I had a big splurge with it over the last few days so I could get it finished before I have to return my library book next week. As always with Rutherfurd's books he puts in so much history through his characters. I found this one particularly relevant as I live so close to London. I know a lot of the places he talks about and I have learnt about them beforehand so it all felt rather familiar. I just loved the way he ended with two characters whose families I had followed down through the years, digging in the London soil and seeing their pasts. Nicely done. It was also great to see another thing come to resolution. Early in the book there were some Romans who were making illegal coins. One of the characters runs off to bury them as they are about to be found out. He never gets to find them again. His ancestors for a time know of it (word of mouth down the generations) and some look for it. The whole thing is forgotten about until the blitz. A bomb lands and uncovers the coins to a volunteer fireman (related to the original man!) - a chancer, never slow to do a little business with looted goods. He manages to recover some of the coins but later the bomb explodes. He ends up with a medal for rescuing a guy who had seen him looting (lucky for him he doesn't remember after the blast). It was all rather satisfactory because I still remembered about the coins and wondered if this little nugget would turn up later in the book. It did.
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| Eastbourne Pier |
I have finally finished London by Edward Rutherfurd. It has been a marathon read and I'm not keen to read another long book for a while, especially as I had to interrupt my reading to read other things like the book for book club and of course it was too heavy to carry around (no I will NOT get a kindle!).
I had a big splurge with it over the last few days so I could get it finished before I have to return my library book next week. As always with Rutherfurd's books he puts in so much history through his characters. I found this one particularly relevant as I live so close to London. I know a lot of the places he talks about and I have learnt about them beforehand so it all felt rather familiar. I just loved the way he ended with two characters whose families I had followed down through the years, digging in the London soil and seeing their pasts. Nicely done. It was also great to see another thing come to resolution. Early in the book there were some Romans who were making illegal coins. One of the characters runs off to bury them as they are about to be found out. He never gets to find them again. His ancestors for a time know of it (word of mouth down the generations) and some look for it. The whole thing is forgotten about until the blitz. A bomb lands and uncovers the coins to a volunteer fireman (related to the original man!) - a chancer, never slow to do a little business with looted goods. He manages to recover some of the coins but later the bomb explodes. He ends up with a medal for rescuing a guy who had seen him looting (lucky for him he doesn't remember after the blast). It was all rather satisfactory because I still remembered about the coins and wondered if this little nugget would turn up later in the book. It did.
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