Sharpe the TV Series Starring Sean Bean Starts Today on WETA UK

The TV series that made Sean Bean a legend comes to Public Television starting tonight, February 15 at 10:00pm thanks to WETA UK.   

Based on the book series by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe   follows the life of British soldier Richard Sharpe and the 95th Rifles during the Peninsular War (1807-1814). 

If you are in the Washington DC Metro Area and don't know WETA UK go to the link below on how to watch this fantastic PBS channel we have the good fortune to have access to in our viewing area:

https://weta.org/tv/uk/faq

If you are new to the Sharpe TV series and want to know a little more about it, I wrote a series of posts about the series episodes back in 2012.  But beware of spoilers and follow the posts in chronological order:

http://whiterosewritings.blogspot.com/search?q=Sharpe+Sundays&max-results=20&by-date=true

There was a time when I was very involved in the Sharpe fandom, and even with some of the people that worked on the Sharpe series.  Alas, those days are long gone, but I have good memories of those times.  (For the most part 😊).  For the memories:

http://www.reenactor.net/index.php?topic=1251.0

For Sean Bean fans in the DC area who know him from The Lord of the Rings, or Game of Thrones, or his wonderful series last year, Broken, but are not aware of the Sharpe series, this is a great opportunity to catch up.  

Sean Bean is Richard Sharpe, and always will be. 

Happy Valentine's Day 2018

Happy Valentine's Day to my two favorite actors

 POEM FOR ANOTHER'S LOVE

You may go and it will not matter, since you remain with me

Like there remains a perfume where a flower has been.

You know that I love you, but I don't say it to you;

And I know that you are mine, without your love being mine.

Life brings us near and Time sunders us apart,

Like Day and Night, at Dawn...

My thirsty heart longs for your clear water,

But it is another's water which I must not drink...

For this reason you can go, because, although I don't follow you

Like a scar you never go away entirely;

And my soul is as a furrow when the wheat is cut

And losing the ear it retains the root.

My love for you is like a river, that seems deeper,

Inexplicably, when the water is gone.

And I am at the edge, watching the bottom,

Since your love and death have an afterlife.

For a love like this, all of life is too little

All of life is too little for a dream like this

Thinking about you, tonight, I will kiss another mouth;

and you will be with another ... but thinking about me!

José Ángel Buesa

English translation by Verlone

Audiobook Challenge - Two Books this Month and A Suggestion for Audible

I looks like by the beginning of next week I will have finished two audiobooks by mid-February. 

I'm just finishing the first book in David Hewson's Nic Costa series,  A Season for The Dead,and I'm really enjoying it.  I'll certainly continue the series, after a detour to  read one more of the Bernie Gunther series (I have two of the series left I think), and maybe a detour for The Tattooist of Auschwitz, narrated by Richard Armitage.

The second book I listened to this month, February, is Wanderlust.  Yes, I did use my one Audible credit this month for Wanderlust narrated by Richard Armitage.

What was my favorite moment in Wanderlust? My favorite moment was (is) the video below:

If only Wanderlust was the book that Richard describes.  He's a born diplomat.

I'm glad I listened to Wanderlust after all. I always enjoy listening to his voice. But I don't plan to listen to it again. Didn't change my mind about this genre. 

Still wander why Audible suggested this, and why he said he would record it. If Audible wants him to narrate more in the "romance" or even erotic romance genre, please find him something better, worthy of his gift of narration.  

I'm glad some RA fans enjoyed it.  Also hope it brings him new fans that will discover his work.  Hope it also inspires casting directors to think of him in a new way so they cast him for interesting and versatile roles we can all enjoy. 

I would prefer if he went back to Georgette Heyer, Dickens, Shakespeare, Stevenson, Hewson, Hartley, etc. and maybe find some great, new, undiscovered, contemporary writers. They are out there Audible, I'm sure of it. 

I've been thinking of what I could suggest to Audible in the more "risque" category, if that's what they want for RA, and I may make this suggestion:

More specifically John Thomas and Lady Jane by D.H. Lawrence, unabridged and uncensored.  Richard Armitage can narrate the Parkin (Mellors) role, if they can find a good female narrator with an interesting voice.