Wonderful Life

Trevor arrived this afternoon glowing with his cycle ride from Templecombe. He and I watched the original James Stewart film, It's A Wonderful Life. I was sure I'd seen it, but I think I'd watched a remake. None of this was visually familiar. The message, that a person with friends is rich, is one I thoroughly endorse!

PS I've looked up the film on Wikipedia, and there was no remake. So I hadn't seen any version, and was enjoying the real thing for the first time.

Reading and watching

Reading: Way back, it seems, I left an enthusiastic review of Caroline Lawrence's latest Roman Mysteries book unfinished. I thought I had quite a bit more to read - but I was almost at the end. Boo hoo!

So I've found that the whole book ends with one big cliff-hanger. Do get it.

Watching: Yesterday evening Charlie and I watched Schindler's List, which I had never seen. What a great film! Back in 1990 Sue and I visited Auschwitz and the memories are indelible. The scene where, apparently, a room full of naked women are in the gas chamber, and we expect to see them climbing on top of each other, as we are told they always did, to reach a little bit of fresh air ....

Well, if you haven't seen the film, I stop here. I wept buckets.

The other scene that broke me up entirely was right at the end, when the real life survivors who owed their lives to Schindler came in a long, long line to place a memorial pebble on his tomb. A Just Goy.