Mary Poppins by P L Travers #inbetweeny

I have watched this film every Christmas, in fact I think we actually have the DVD somewhere but I have never read the book. It was a Christmas present from my in laws which I was surprised and delighted to receive as it had never occurred to me that there was a Mary Poppins book yet now I had it to read!

Not being aware of the book I researched (googled) Travers and discovered what an interesting life she has led. Books have been written about her (well at Least one – Mary Poppins She Wrote) which I would read if it happened to pass my lap.

Anyway the actual book – a pink candy striped hardback was slim with decent sized text so only took a couple of days train trips to work and back read. Included were the iconic parts of the film such as 'Tuppence A Bag' and Bert with his drawings that come to life but other parts were missed out, notably a spoonful of sugar and I missed the singing and dancing. Granted you can't really make a musical into a book but the spirit of the film, joyful sequences where the neighbouring canon fire requires all hands on deck were missing.

There were also rather large differences in the book such as Michael and Jane had twin siblings and Mary Poppins came across as quite self engrossed and moody.

I struggled with working out what the lessons to be learned were meant to be in each chapter, for example the buying of the gingerbread. The chapters certainly weren't as clear as you would expect a children's book to be. I'm sad to admit that the fact the book was a children's book was its main problem. It was very very much a children's book with nothing in it for adults to relate to and as I was left feeling deflated that there wasn’t more to offer.

Overall if you haven’t read the book by the age of 12 I would say give it a miss and watch the film instead. I've passed it on to my 8 year old to read as I think she will get much more enjoyment out of it than me and for that reason it will probably stay on the shelf. I'm pleased I have read it but I won't be recommending it, to adults.

Comments

Mount by Jilly Cooper #inbetweeny

I'll start this blog with a warning, this post does contain spoilers. So if you haven't read the book then please don't read this blog, yet. Of course you should read this post just wait a little while until you've read the latest installment of Rupert Campbell Black (RCB). Warnings out of the way I'll begin. I was massively looking forward to reading this book having hugely enjoyed the previous ones. RCB is my (not so) secret trashy pleasure and has been for many years. This book had all the ingredients of a classic, pages of wonderfully named characters, a few tortured souls and of course RCB with all his horses, dogs and now grandchildren. The book got off to a good start full of characters from old but also plenty of new ones to mix it up a bit. The horse's really played a starring role in this book but I also really loved Gav and at first Gala. Yep only at first as she went strongly down hill and I bet you can guess why. RCB. Here is where I fell o

Stitch Up (A Best Defence Mystery) by William McIntyre #BlogTour

OK hold on everybody for MY FIRST EVER BLOG TOUR!!!!!!!!! Did I like it? Did I manage to read it in time? Did I forget to post my review when I should have done? Yes, yes and (thankfully) no! Stitch Up is the ninth in the Best Defence Series featuring Scottish defence lawyer Robbie Munro. As a solicitor not a policeman who successfully runs his own law firm, is recently married and has a daughter the book immediately set itself apart from your standard crime thriller. The book begins with Robbie's ex girlfriend asking him to investigate the apparent suicide of her new boyfriend (awkward!). At the same time a convicted child-murderer is attempting to have his conviction quashed (if I remember the term correctly Mr McIntyre?) claiming Robbie's dad ex sergeant Alex Munro planted key evidence at the scene of the crime (double awkward!). I liked the two stories running along side each other which kept the pace of the book moving swiftly forwards. In real life McIntyre is

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray and a 30 a day habit.

Nothing like challenging oneself in the New Year and rather than giving up alcohol and only eating steamed kale the Book Club decided on reading the 900 odd page doorstop that is Vanity Fair . I ordered it at once and (using something vaguely like maths) worked out I needed to read 30 pages a day to have it read in time for the meeting. I was surprisingly undeterred by this and thought if nothing else I could use the book as a dumbbell when working off the chocolate orange. I found I actually liked hitting my 30 a day target (much like all the other New Years' resolutioners like hitting their ten thousand steps) and it motivated me to just squeeze a few more pages in here and there so I was ahead of target. I haven’t really approached a book this way before but then it is longer than my copy of War and Peace and there are over 50 books on my bookshelf waiting to be read (now in 'to read' order due to much prating about over Christmas). I didn’t know anything a

Cramlington Book Club

Search This Blog