Captain Corelli

I have just finished Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. Written in 1993 it tells the story of a number of characters on the Island of Cephallonia during the second world war and during the occupation of the island by German and Italian troops.

The story focuses on the daughter of the local doctor, Dr Iannis, who is forced to take in an Italian officer during the occupation. The daughter, Pelagia is betrothed to a local fisherman called Mandras who leaves the island to fight the Germans. Mandras returns from the war as a tramp having had to suffer the winter in the mountains of Greece and then leaves again to fight with a communist group leaving Pelagia to the charms of the Italian.

Her relationship with her gentlemanly oppressor starts badly as Pelagia tries to maintain an atmosphere of loathing but quickly changes to love.

As the war leads to a conclusion the island is witness to the type of brutality that you would expect from the Germans and Pelagia thinks that her lover has been killed and lives the rest of her life wondering what could have been.

It's a tragic love story with some twists and turns along the way and describes how war can affect an entire community and the love between two humans who just happen to be on the opposite side of the war's fence.

It was a great book but took me a lot longer to read than I had expected. It was a little slow to start and really only picked up towards the end but is, nevertheless, very well written and worth a read.

Those Damned Horns

I have been watching the World Cup like most of you. I'm not sure if it's been a particularly spectacular affair. The Argentinians and Germans have played some of the most exciting games in the competition but both failed to get through to the final. Brazil had a great start but fell before the last 4 and Spain, favoured by many, including myself, to win started badly and then dominated everyone without scoring very many goals. Having 60% - 70% of the possession is one thing but you have to convert that into goals. Switzerland managed to sneak a goal passed them in the first round and The Netherlands are a far better team with a few capable of scoring so the game should be a great one, but you never know. They may cancel each other out as the

fellas from Portugal and Brazil did and then we will be presented with 90 minutes or more of turgid football.

I have selected Spain to win tomorrow and need it for the pool that we entered in the office. The annoying thing is that we have a few Canadians who know nothing about the game who went on line and copied the predictions of various websites and tried to pass them off as there own and they are now winning. Some of them actually have Holland and Spain in the final where the more experienced among us had a Brasil / Spain final. Those damned hockey fans. I'll never live it down if I'm not near the top of the winners.

Let's hope for a great game tomorrow and one without those bloody horns. From the first game I saw they've spoiled every game and turned the beautiful game into the incredibly annoying game. It's like listening to a hornets nest for 90 minutes. I just hope that the fans from the domestic teams from around Europe don't adopt them. They should be banned forever.

Mark E Smith Interview

No, not one I did. This is one that is linked through The Fall's website:

http://thequietus.com/articles/04568-mark-e-smith-of-the-fall-on-art-the-artist

Enjoy