Need I say more? In no particular order, here we go!
Wensleydale and Cranberry
White Stilton, Mango and Ginger
Brie
Double Gloucester – this is my go to staple. Most people keep some cheddar in the fridge, I always have a block of Double Gloucester to grate over whatever I may be eating for dinner!
Cadbury Philadelphia
It may sound weird, but spread it on a hobnob and it’s like eating chocolate cheesecake! That said, I couldn’t see it in the supermarket today so I’m not sure they’re still doing it…
This was my second adventure into The Austen Project having read Northanger Abbey last year. This means I’ve now got back up to speed, having started with the second book, then the first, am so an now ready to go onto Emma next which I’ve just bought with my birthday money! (Though there’ll most likely be something to break up the Austen first…
So again, the story’s been brought up to date, Elinor Dashwood is an Architecture student, Marianne isn’t just a feeble 19th Century lady but suffers from severe asthma, Colonel Brandon is called “Bill” and Willoughby, “Wills”. There’s also an excellent twist later on to bring one of the plot items up to day, but I’ll leave that for you to find out for yourselves! That all said, a lot of the story still felt like the original Austen. There was still so much about inheritance, about marrying for money, and so much in the way of still slightly formal language, I’m not sure it was stretched as far as it might have been.
I really enjoyed the story, blitzed the second half, but no matter what era I read this book in, the whole way through I will always picture Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet et al, from the incredible traditional film version! This time I just put them in modern dress in my head, but it was still those familiar faces!
I’m not sure if this modernisation is as strong as Northanger was, but I still loved the book, and am very much looking forward to reading the next one!
I’ve always prided myself on having read every novel Cecelia Ahern has written, but I hadn’t ever gotten around to the two short stories she released about four years ago.
These definitely were a step away from her usual light chick lit, here’s a brief bit of blurb for each story.
Girl in the mirror
This was a lot darker than the usual, a story about a grandma who has all the mirrors in her house covered in dark fabric, and finding out the reasoning behind that. It got pretty creepy, probably best not read before bed!
The Memory Maker
Another experimental thing going on here in that the main character was only ever referred to as “he”, and the story jumped all around in time, so got pretty confusing in places. It was about a guy who had created a machine able to put memories into peoples heads. I think of the two I preferred this one, but they were definitely both a bit odd!