BBC to adapt Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Idoru

As there's so much interest in Buffy/A Game of Thrones, I'm going to make an assumption that at least some people here have read and enjoyed Susannah Clarke's wonderful <i>Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell</i>. Well, the BBC is turning it into a series: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell-bbc-one-casting-release.html<br><br>I've not heard of the two main actors, but as it's a BBC thing I have high hopes. Anyone else going to be watching it?<br>

Peter Crumb

Always see Jonathan Strange in charity shops. Top recommendation?

kittygal

on Buffy anyone know why Syfy irritatingly jumped from Series 3 to Series 7 on it's reruns?

kreuzkav

I'm trying to get the Stroud Green link here.

ChangN4N6

It's going to be filmed here. Chang

miss annie

I read it and found it a bit long winded but enjoyable. If you liked it try The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies or for something lighter the Night Circus.

kreuzkav

@ Chang.  On Lorne road?

ChangN4N6

If only! I cud do with the location fee! It's on the reservoirs . Chang

vetski

@kittygal, I don't understand either, but they keep on doing it. Do you have the Horror Channel? They show an ep. of Angel daily, usually straight after Buffy!

kreuzkav

Chang distracted me but what is the connection with Stroud Green?

Peter Crumb

Take a guess.

Idoru

Peter Crumb: I generally hesitate to recommend books as everyone's taste is so different. Like miss annie said it is a bit long winded and sometimes hard going, but I really enjoyed it. I thought it very similar in style to Jane Austen, although a friend of mine thought it an insult to Ms Austen to even mention it in the same sentence. It's set in the 19th century and magic is a real and accepted part of life. If you're on Goodreads, it's here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14201.Jonathan_Strange_Mr_Norrell?from_search=true<br><br>miss annie: I've got Night Circus on my to-read list, the other one I've not heard of so I'll check it out.<br>

wisteria53

<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Another recommendation is </span><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><font face="Tahoma">Rivers of London </font></b>by Ben Aaronovitch<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (prefer these to Suzanne Clarke's book </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 33px; background-color: rgb(240, 246, 234);">Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell</span></i>, which I agree is Austenesque in tone), for a mix of detective/police procedural set in modern London (you could navigate by some of the descriptions) and magic - and it would also film well.

miss annie

Ben Aaronovitch is an ex Waterstones bookseller and wrote the first book on his lunch breaks! We are proud of him. The audio versions are excellent too. The Deptford Trilogy was written by a slightly odd Canadian Professor who looked like Gandalf. I love his books, they often go off an a tangent leading one to investigate things he mentions. Oh, and I bet you do know one the Norrell & Strange actors - Eddie Marsan is the senior policeman in Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock. My mum & stepdad's surname is Strange, often thought of adopting it.

ADGS

It's an insult to Susanna Clarke to mention Jane Austen in the same sentence as her. <div style="font-style: normal;"><br></div><div>The worldbuilding in Ben Aaronovitch's novels is first-class, but the plotting (in the first two, at least) is terrible - I worked out the culprit 200 pages ahead of the leads in <i>Rivers </i>and 300 pages in <i>Moon over Soho</i>. That said, he's improved on that front in the two books since. His fellow <i>Doctor Who</i> alumnus Paul Cornell has also started a very good occult London police series with<i> London Falling</i> - but they're an awful lot darker, more outright horror. Still, if you want a local connection in your spooky detective stories, you need China Mieville's <i>Kraken</i>, where the protagonist lives just across Finsbury Park.</div>

nick_m

If you read it, my advice would be to skip the footnotes.

ChangN4N6

Except the ones about Stroud Green reservoirs Chang

Idoru

Ah, so many new books to read <br>

ADGS

But the footnotes are brilliant! One of them even spins off a short story in its own right.

Idoru

I started reading CM's <i>Kraken</i> at the weekend. Quarter of the way through and it's brilliant. I'm so in love with China Mieville.<br>

ChangN4N6

The Kraken Wakes is a good one. But avoid the reservoirs. Chang

ADGS

I find Mieville's addiction to the deliberate anticlimax as a way of undercutting fantasy cliches slightly wearing, but other than that he's bloody brilliant. 

ChangN4N6

Agree totally . Chang