Thursday 18 February 2010

Emotionally wrecked

Spent most of the day inside, with the rain and sleet streaming against the windows, reading out loud to Shark, Squirrel and Tiger, with us all buried between sofa and floor cushions in front of a roaring coal fire.

Would be idyllic, except for the fact that the book was War Horse by Michael Murpurgo, and what with the loves, loyalties, partings, deaths, trusts and hollow victories I had to ignore the cries of carry on! carry on! but just intermittently put the book down for a weep.

8 comments:

katyboo1 said...

the play is also fabulous. It's just transferred from the National to the West End and is well worth a trip. I did the backstage tour at the National while it was on and they showed us all the props and how they made them. Amazing puppetry. The gritlets would love it.

Have you read Private Peaceful by him yet? If not, stock up on more tissues.

Anonymous said...

Apparantly the author got the idea of the book from talking to some old soldiers in a pub - http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23669235-morpurgo-war-horse-is-a-story-i-had-to-write.do - rather moving!

Quite agree that the play is fab. But do take tissues...

Unknown said...

Next time try Alice in Wonderland?

-A Modern Mother

Big mamma frog said...

Alice in Wonderland is way weird and scary...and when you get to the part where you have to explain about hallucinogenic mushrooms... or maybe that's just my kids?

Still haven't read any Michael M. The more people go on about how fab the books are the more I seem to avoid them. Brings out the stubborn in me.

Merry said...

Oh god, yes the play. And the book. Roared my way through both.

Grit said...

that is a great endorsement katyboo, thank you. we will try hard to see it. i have not read private peaceful, although the morpurgo shelf has two copies, waiting.

it is terrible, mud. the children are really embarrassed by the weeping. but i just can't help it.

hi mm! we have several copies of alice, including the annotated, which is sometimes read while we are pretending to do maths. or physics. or something.

big mf, i am a bit the same - i finally read jkrowling after digging my heels in for three years. (i didn't finish the first book though.)

merry, what would you suggest at this age range which is powerful to read yet deals with sensitive stuff in a way which will not make me blub?

MadameSmokinGun said...

I desperately wanted to do the backstage tour thing but thought my sproglets were too little. After seeing Bacteria in Tights on stage lately which produced mass wailing I think I was right.

I sobbed all the way through Up, Hannah Montana the Movie and High School Musical 3 so I think I will avoid Michael Morporgo for another few years until I am mature enough.

I have had 'Birdsong' on my shelf for about 5 years waiting for me to grow a backbone. For now I'm sticking to Worzel Gummidge.

Always accepted Alice's psychedelica without question funnily enough.

Grit said...

i have never wept at alice. Up, yes, which was irritating, because i never wept at heart of darkness.