Hot on the heels of successive games of 'Jamaica' and 'Dixit' it is time to crash into the keys and mash out something barely intelligible and hopefully interesting on a theme randomly chosen in as little time as possible, which of course it easy as I will choose Sherlock Holmes. That's hardly random at all in fact.
I'll get to Mr Holmes and Dr Watson in a moment, but begin instead by revealing that I feel much happier and healthier. The goop is subsiding and sleep is resuming, and suddenly normal patterns are back. The days are even getting longer! You wouldn't think that Christmas had just struck, destroying all in its path and reminding us all of just why holidays are the most dangerous times of the year. And we'll be out of chocolates soon, eliminating one more terrible danger.
<Makes a note to lose weight: First option is to leave gold on ferry>
Bullion is such a terrible encumbrance in the grand scheme of things. Thank goodness for paper money and diamonds. Welsh diamond mines are a phenomenon best kept secret.
Now, are we ready for Sherlock Holmes yet? Perhaps not. The last week or so has been a haze of Patrick O'Brian novels, Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies and much much reading. There has also been a ridiculous amount of minestrone soup, and the inherent relief of having a good excuse to stay in for a week with no responsibilities and recover. The Patrick O'Brian books in the Aubrey-Maturin sequence are utterly fascinating, intricately researched and detailed but simultaneously almost pulpish in their plots. In many ways they're far more easily approached than Forester's Hornblower series, if more adult in tone. Right now I'm up to 'The Surgeon's Mate', which is in danger of becoming a kitchen sinky, but let's hope it picks up as they always do. The O'Brian novels are certainly better on average than Bernard Cornwell's historical novels, which started well but then descended into almost routine potboilers. However, I would certainly recommend Cornwell's 'Starbuck Chronicles' and point out that lots of people loved the Sharpe books even I did get bored with pretty quickly after a promising start.
Finally edging back to the nominal topic, there are things to be said about the Rathbone and Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies, things which shall be said in the next post as it's becoming rather late here in South Wales. Soon, it would be nice to write about the old time radio show 'Richard Diamond: Private Detective' and eventually hopefully its television successor 'Peter Gunn'. It has to be fun too as Blake Edwards made it!
So, old time detective shows to be talked about in the future, and it shall be fun!
O.
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