Jesus Christ Superstar

I thought it was excellent & there is no doubt that I would give it a WOW award. I see a lot of shows but this is one I would go to again. Lord Webber is an amazing man to have come up with this when he was only 21. What visions he has. Laurence Connor brought the production right up to date with Jesus (Ben Forster) being with a group of protesters at St Paul's and the 'gospel' being spread by social network sites. Tim Minchin played the role of Judas superbly. He is a brilliant singer. Mel C was also in it as Mary Magdalene and Chris Moyles had a small role - that of King Herod, and he reminded me of Dale Winton. It was amusing how he asked the audience to vote to whether Jesus lived or died. The songs were amazing and at times so much was going on on the stage that you just had to concentrate on one set of performers.

Homefront - ITV

I don't watch too much TV but as an ex-soldiers wife and as many of friends are still married to serving soldiers I thought I would watch this new drama. I thought it would be 'soldier' based but it is good to see life from the side of the wives. They are the main support of the soldier serving abroad in a war-torn country. They have to continue doing the mundane things and keeping life normal for the children, whilst missing sharing the events of the day with their partner, and not knowing whether he is safe or not. What a lot of them are missing are a listening ear and a hug.  Since I was a soldiers wife things have got easier as the internet, Skype, Facebook etc has made contact so much more accessible and you are not waiting weeks for the letters to start arriving or the odd 10 minute phone call.  

What struck me though was the house the young widow lived in - my other half did 20+ years and we never had a quarter that size and the colour of the walls, unless you want to spend ages repainting them, the walls are magnolia. The first thing we did when we moved into our own home was decorate the whole place in our colours! 

The reminder to the woman not to knock on the front door brought back some emotions as the knock to the door is something you never want. Even though you knew it would only be the postman bringing a parcel, there was always that 'fear'. 

It also showed how rankings rarely interfere with friendships (very few officer's wives wear their husbands rank) and how support is always there. Women understand how the others are feeling and are there to listen, wipe away tears, watch the kids and cheer them up when they are down as the next day it might be them who is feeling low. 

The Woman in Black - Nottingham

Read the book a long time ago, (if I remember rightly I think I did an exam on it) then re-read it earlier this year after I'd watched the film version. This was more scary than the film. Being in the theatre you felt part of the story especially as you didn't know where the actors (and the Woman in Black) was going to turn up.  Stephen Mallatratt's stage version of Hill's book is extremely good and told in a novel way. I hadn't realised until I was chatting to someone at work about it, that it is a long running play - I thought it was quite recent!!!! 

I loved the way the whole play is performed by just 2 actors (if you don't include the Woman in Black) and just a few  props and sounds from the sound-man  Their performances are excellent you really do believe they are riding on a pony and trap and Spider the little dog is real. When Spider runs off you follow the actors eyes to see where it is running to!!  The thriller-horror is all down to suggestion, not the blood and gore as seen in most novels and films designed to scare the living daylights out of you. A locked door suddenly opening becomes sinister, a creaking, rocking chair threatening , a trashed room ominous , a music box spine-chilling and swirling mist creepy. Your mind really does go into overtime. It might not seem to appeal to the teen population but when I saw it half the audience were teens (probably due to it being on their syllabus) and despite the shows teens tend to watch on TV and the console games they play this seemed to scare them so much more. They were screaming and shrieking and muttering throughout and at the interval all I heard was talk about the show (and from where I was sat no sign of them texting on their mobiles)- excellent! It seemed to have got under their skins and I reckon many will have nightmares for a few nights to come. I actually walked to the car after the show and was carefully looking into dark corners half expecting the Woman in Black to appear.

The play is set in a theatre where an aging man (Julian Forsyth) comes to tell his tale to an actor (Anthony Eden). He wants to be able to tell his family and friends about what happened to him thirty years ago when he was starting out. At first it is comical as he cannot do anything but tell his tale in a monotone way but the actor manages to bring him out of himself. The actor plays the young Arthur Kipps whilst Arthur (himself) plays every other character he meets. 

Arthur, a very junior solicitor is sent to Eel Marsh House,  in the back of beyond on the salt marshes, when an old lady dies there alone, to go through all her paperwork. But secrets are bound up in the house and marshes and the longer he spends there, the more he discovers. He finally discovers that a woman who had a child out of wedlock and gave the child up to relatives is distraught when he is killed in an accident and seeks revenge by taking children of local people. 

The final twist where the woman in black is not a surprise extra provided by the old man but an actual ghost is brilliant.

Spinner's Lake - Anna Jacobs

This continues on from a book I read very recently (Hallam Square) and is the final book (so far!) based on the Gibson family in Lancashire.  Frederick has now died and his wife is left to cope with running the businesses in a time when people don't want to deal with women (they have no brains and can't understand such matters) including two of her step-children. But Frederick knew she could deal with it and didn't want his other children to benefit from his demise. Thankfully the Gibson clan rally round and support her until she starts to cope with her grief. The artist Tian, who fell in love with her at first sight, gets a letter from the late Frederick saying he would still like him to paint Annie's portrait and if there is still a spark of attraction between them to follow up on it, as he doesn't want Annie to grow into old age alone. So Tian takes a year out and spend sit in America but just as he is about to return he gets tricked into joining the army and it is a while until he returns to English soil, and when he does, after a bang to the head, can remember hardly anything, the only thing he can recall is his love for Annie. She nurses him back to health and they fall in love and together manage to help the rest of the Gibson family and the mill operatives keep their head above water whilst the war lasts, whilst providing them with work - building a lake for the area. 
A lovely romantic book, very easy to read, which shows romance does not always run smoothly. 

An Empty Jar & 2 Beers Inspirational Tale

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 beers.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into

 the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.. The sand is everything else---the small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

Sweetie - Jenny Tomlin

Set in the hot summer of 1976, it is all about a community which finds itself looking over its shoulder at everyone when children start being savagely abused and murdered and how they take justice into their own hands when the authorities can't find the evidence they need to proceed. Very graphic & very shocking - definitely not for the faint-hearted. It made me cringe and want to stop reading at times but I had to carry on so I knew the outcome. 

Not Alone - Jenny Tomlin

This is very topical due to all the people coming forward at the moment to tell their stories. 


After Jenny's book was published lots of friends told of their experiences of abuse. Here is a collection of these tales told compassionately from someone who has been there and experienced it. As well as highlighting the range of abuse around, it also highlights how the systems at the time let them down very badly. The people who did the abusing were someone seeking a vulnerable single mum, someone seeking a young gay guy to con into group activities, woman v woman, a brother, a grandfather, a priest, a wife abusing her husband, a teenage daughter abusing her mother, a family friend, a person giving AIDS to another, being forced into an arranged marriage, rape in marriage, and a case of serious assault but not rape. Amazingly these people survived and went on to have successful lives but the memories will always haunt them.

The Playdate - Louise Millar

I was given this to read and review for a forum and am so glad as I thought the book was excellent. 

At first I thought it was going to be a typical chick-lit book (just general escapism) but I was surprised to find early on that I was beginning to doubt the front these women were putting on and behind each of them I thought there was a terrible secret. It is based on the lives of 3 neighbours (& their partners and children) and their relationships with each other. 

One is a single mum with a child who has recovered from a couple of heart operations, another has only just moved in but appears to have odd behaviour (brought on by something which happened in the past) and the third is a married American women with 3 children. I can acknowledge, having moved around a lot, the feeling of being alone yet being surrounded by people. 

I also really like the way it is written from the viewpoint of the three main characters.

I have just found out that this is her first novel so am going to be on the look out for more in the future.