Don't Look Now

Last night I was reading a short story called "Don't Look Now" by Daphne du Maurier. It concerned an English couple who take a holiday in Venice to help them get over the death of their daughter. While they are there they encounter a couple of elderly Scottish sisters whi tell the wife that they can see the ghost of her daughter and that she is happy. For the first time, the wife manages to feel comforted and happy, but the husband refuses to let himself believe it. When his wife has to travel back to England, the husband finds himself stranded in Venice, which is being plagued by a serial killer. He starts to see glimpses of what he believes to be a young girl in distress, and decides to go and help. Which turns out to be a big mistake. The story is pretty creepy and unsettling. It was adapted, fairly faithfully into a film, directed by Nicolas Roeg and starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie.

I also watched the final episode of The Worlds of Fantasy which dealt with role of fantasy in the modern world, and dealt with the work of authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and film-maker Guillermo Del Toro. It was very interesting, and it's a pity that the show is the last in the series. I also had a reply from Michele who thanked me for my text message and said that she had had a great day.

On my way into work I got The Independent for the Great Poets booklet which today focussed on William Blake, along with Christopher Smart and Thomas Gray, and The Guardian for the Great Poets of the 20th Century which had a booklet about one of my favourite poets, Sylvia Plath.

I also got the comments from my evening class tutor for the individual tuition. here are some of the comments:
" There's much here that is skilful and eye-catching.
You are good at creating believable and convincing atmosphere. You can cast a spell over the reader and get him/her to relax into your story-telling.
Plotting is a strong point also. And in this piece your dialogue is generally very naturalistic.
Carry on with your story-telling because you have a great fluency and imagination."
So that was nice. She did say I needed to tighten up my prose a little, and that it ended too abruptly, but then it was only an extract from the beginning of something much longer.

I walked home after work today, for a change. It only took me about ten minutes longer than it would on the bus.