Coming up on today’s show we’ll be chatting to the Dublin Film Qlub about their upcoming season of ‘Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know’ movies which kicks off on October 20th!

We’ll also have all the Activities & Events for this week plus the weekly Gig Guide and Sinéad will also be playing out her random assortment of tunage with some movie/TV tunes in there!

You can stream the show live from here!

People do the best they can do in the world that they are born into, but how better would those doctors have been from the 1800’s if they had been born now, with modern technology and facilities. A fair amount still managed to make names for themselves, but what a name it would have been if they had been able to use our technology for their research.

Ranulph Fiennes is one such man. Born in the 1940’s, he should have arrived here earlier. He is an explorer and an adventurer, a natural talented occupation difficult in a world filled with maps of previous explorer’s footsteps. The journeys therefore are limiting as there are only few places left to go and there is a reason why they are still bare.

But perhaps that is why Fiennes was born when he was as maybe he is the only one that could fill those missing spots and travel those last few routes proven too difficult for others before him. He spent his twenties in the Army and chasing his love, Ginny. Together they conjured up a plan to tackle the two poles, which they took up their thirties. Eventually with Ginny in the post of communicator and Fiennes with a team took on the challenge at the rough age of 40.

In his biography book, Mad, Bad and Dangerous, Fiennes describes the epic adventure in detail, with descriptions of all the various types of ice and snow they encountered including soft, slushy snow through to hard peak formations. The challenge took its tool on all team members as each struggled not only with the cold and exhaustion of ploughing through the ice, but also the physical toll on their bodies. Fiennes’s body took on many issues over the years of exposure to the rough elements, including chaffing from harnesses during man-hauling, kidney stones, frost-bit on his fingers (the tips were eventually amputated, with the help of his own hacksaw), blisters, lips-cracking, back strain, muscle cramps and eventually a heart-attack.

But not all his adventures were in the cold. Mad, Bad and Dangerous also included his non-ice adventures in sand dunes, mountains, as well as 7 marathons on 7 continents within 7 days challenge. This he did shortly after his heart bypass surgery. In an attempt to get rid of his ‘irritating’ vertigo problem, Fiennes also added conquering Mount Everest to his list of achievements. Due to his previous heart issues and the lack of oxygen at such altitudes, his first attempt was stopped short of the peak. Not one to back down, he then attempted it (and succeeded) from the rock face side, which involved less height and hiking and more climbing. He did this in his sixties.

Physical strain isn’t the only thing Fiennes has had to endure in his life. With the loss of his wife, who he had known since he was teenager, then shortly afterwards his mom and two sisters, he was thrown into a turmoil of grief which he dealt with in solitude until eventually deciding that he needed a new challenge else he was going to succumb to sadness.

His book is reading in a causal article style with a lot of emphasis on facts and observations rather than personal thoughts or opinions. He also includes excerpts from others diaries and letters who have travelled with him, almost to allow the reader to reach their own conclusions or to back up his own personal experiences.

When I presented the book to my own father who is about to cross the bridge into his 60’s he declined, applying that men of physically and achievements such as Fiennes rather than inspire him, make him feel like an underachiever. I can understand how one might feel that way. However, due to the style of the Fiennes, you don’t compare your life to his, but merely read in awe of the marvel of the world and hidden places. Through the author you can experience the coldest regions of the world without going through the discomfort of being there.

One thing that struck me to how fragile life is, is when Fiennes was describing the ascent up the cliff side of Mount Everest. He explained how from the town below, on a clear day, people would look through binoculars at the climbers making their way up to the peak. People below watched as one explorer, while trying to find a foot hold, misplaced his foot and fell the couple of thousand feet to his immediate death. There was nothing any one could do and there was no point searching for the body.

Would I recommend this book?

Yes. I would recommend it to everybody. It really is an easy book to read and although it isn’t particularly exciting, it is highly interesting. When reading, I often wandered if he would make it out alive of some of the sticky spots he finds himself if. Then, with a small smack on my forehead, I remember that I am reading his biography that he wrote, so he obviously did. But I have to read to find out how.

Like the way I feel
It’s alright to steal
What I need from you
Do what I have to do
Say what I have to say
Go where I have to go
And that’s dangerous
Dangerous to know (know, know, know)

I was a law onto myself
When you found me out on my own
Together, nothing was secret
Together, we were alone
Who needs all the questions?
Who lost their direction?
Who said a lie’s gonna break you?
When a lie could be dangerous?

Like the way I feel
It’s all right to steal
What I need from you
Do what I have to do
Say what I have to say
Go where I have to go
And that’s dangerous
Dangerous to know

Ignorance is bliss
You’re safe when you resist
There’s no safety in a kiss like this
It’s dangerous
So kiss me
Kiss me!

Like the way I feel
It’s all right to steal
What I need from you
Do what I have to do
Say what I have to say
Go where I have to go
And that’s dangerous
Dangerous…

Like the way I feel
It’s all right to steal
What I need from you
Do what I have to do
Say what I have to say
Go where I have to go
And that’s dangerous
Dangerous to know (know, know, know)

Some secrets need to be kept…

Whilst out riding one day, Lady Emily discovers the brutally mutilated body of a young woman who could almost be her twin. With the Jack the Ripper murders of London fresh in people’s mind, Lady Emily feels a need to find the murderer of the woman and bring them to justice. It’s just the sort of distraction she needs that could take her mind off the loss that has plagued her recently, even if it does mean she’s putting herself in danger once again. As she begins an investigation, she learns that the victim was the daughter of a wealthy local family (whose mother happens to be friends with Lady Emily’s French friend Cecile) and that she was an escapee from an institution for the mentally unwell. Lady Emily soon begins hearing voices, that of a small girl, and sees faces in windows where there should not be faces and sees a blue ribbon appear and disappear. This ties in with the local ‘myth’ of a young girl who fell to her death due to maternal neglect and it is said that she roams the countryside searching for a better mother than the one she was born to. Lady Emily begins to fear for her own sanity, especially as what she is hearing and seeing is the same thing the murdered woman reported hearing and seeing before her family decided to commit her to the mental facility.

Colin is also having second thoughts about his wife investigating crimes after the horrible way things turned out during the last investigation and he is warring internally with himself about just how much he will let her take part in. The relationship between the two becomes strained as Lady Emily is devastated at his new frame of mind and admits to herself that if he forbids her any involvement, she will acquiesce to his wishes simply because she loves him. That does not prevent her from becoming depressed over this new turn of events, and given that the dashing jewel thief Sebastian is back from A Poisoned Season to provide her with some much needed intrigue and assistance, Colin might just have to rethink his stance.

Wow. This book was just a major step back in character development for both Lady Emily and Colin Hargreaves. Lady Emily, although a bit irritating at times, has always been admirable from a reader point for not caring much about the ways of Victorian society and doing precisely what she wants to do – learn Ancient Greek, remain a widow and refuse the hands of eligible men, travel to France and Greece, solve murders. And Colin has always been equally admirable in the way that he has not sought to confine her free spirit or thirst for knowledge, nor her lack of regard for society. In this book – they both reverse their characters.

After being shot at the end of Tears of Pearl, losing her baby and being informed of possibly not being able to conceive another one, Lady Emily becomes a pale shadow of her former self, listless and lifeless, lazing around. She has abandoned her Greek studies and doesn’t really show much of an interest in anything until discovering the gruesome body and deciding that she must attempt to put right what happened to the poor murdered girl. Colin also takes a massive step back in this novel, not only expressing doubts about the involvement Lady Emily has in the investigation but pondering whether or not to flat out ban her from any such involvements in the future. He puts restrictions on her involvement in this case, forbidding her to do a couple of things and Lady Emily can only nod weakly and agree while she sobs and agonizes on the inside.

I always liked Colin before this novel, I thought he was funny and very progressive and actually, quite a good match for Lady Emily, often too good a match. He was quite prepared for her to live her life the way she wanted to and not impose any 19th Century Victorian-husband type rules upon her. Yes she ended up in danger in the last book but she had the sense to get herself out of it and actually figured out the murderer before he did. It was extremely disappointing to see him to revert to this sort of “you’re my wife and if I say you won’t be involved, then you won’t be, I forbid it! Understand me?” sort of character and it was almost as disappointing to see Lady Emily agree to this because she loves him so much and will have to abide by his orders if he chooses to enforce them. I felt like reaching into the pages of this novel and shaking her. Where was the woman who refused to marry him at first because she didn’t want to be tied down in such a conventional way? Where was the woman who learned Ancient Greek just because she wanted to? Where was the woman who traveled to foreign countries and enjoyed life? She might’ve been irritating at times but she was a heck of a lot more interesting than the shadow of a person who haunted this book!

I’ve questioned why I keep reading these when really I’ve only actually enjoyed 1 out of 4. The rest have been sort of okay or just the other side of okay, not quite bad, but not quite good either. I think it’s because I’m craving books of this type - Victorian mysteries with a tiny bit of romance where characters are breaking out of the traditions of the time. I’ve been looking for these sort of books lately and latching on to anything that I find, such as these and even though they’re not great, I keep reading them. I still have #3 in this series to read and because I can get them from the library I will read it but now that I’m caught up, I am guessing I’ll have forgotten all about this series by the time the next one is released.

This book could really have been about entirely different people than the others in the series.

4/10

Book #56 of 2011

“Dangerous to know” is the fifth book in the Lady Emily romance and suspense series by Tasha Alexander. It is set in Normandy in the 1890s where Colin Hargreaves, Emily’s husband and detective in the service of the Crown, has brought her to recover from the injuries she sustained at the end of the previous book, “Tears of Pearl.” While Colin no doubt meant well by bringing Emily to his family’s estate for her convalescence, however, her mother-in-law is less than welcoming to say the least, and so Emily is looking for any excuse to get out of the house. One day Emily is out riding, she finds the body of a brutally murdered young woman, Edith Prier, who escaped 6 months previously from a local asylum. The local police are inept as always, and so the stage is set for another Lady Emily mystery.

This book was a keenly awaited sequel after the heart-wrenching ending to “Tears of pearl.” I was therefore disappointed to find that, while we meet again some of my favourite characters from previous mysteries (Cecile du Lac and Sebastian Capet), this is in my opinion the most annoying and least enjoyable book so far in the series. Where Colin previously seemed like a very enlightened and liberal man for his time, he becomes so overprotective in this book that Emily’s usual independent streak, ability to fend for herself, and cunning detective skills disappear, making her instead look more like a damsel in distress in dire need of rescuing. (Can you really blame her mother-in-law for thinking Emily has a weak constitution and nothing more to commend her than a beautiful exterior?!)

Also, (spoiler alert if you haven’t read “Tears of pearl”!) while I think the author draws a fairly realistic picture of the grieving process Emily and Colin must go through after the loss of their unborn child, I quickly found Emily’s “ghostly” sightings of little girls, ribbons, and the like repetitive and boring. I also find it hard to believe that so enlightened a woman as Emily would begin to question her senses and believe in ghosts, rather than looking for a more natural explanation (well, eventually she does, of course, but she takes far too long in getting there!). Only towards the end of the book does the Emily we have come to know and love appear. Overall, therefore, I found this book disappointing and while it’s an easy read, I can’t help but feel that it is a transition book between the excellent “Tears of pearl” and, hopefully, better books to come.

I seem to be on a roll with Nell’s books. This one I read very quickly and like her other books, I enjoyed very much. This one has a lot more action than the others I’ve read, but it was just as good.

In this one we get to know Jerome and Gemma and how their relationship develops when Gemma is dumped by her boyfriend and Jerome begins to realise that he wants a more serious relationship.

I particularly liked the fact that the heroine was a character I’ve met before and that in the other story (Be my Hero) she was a bit of a mouse of a girl, but in this one she got to have her day (and get her man).

The plot was very interesting and had a lot of real life connections (the evil man who wants to trash the countryside to build houses for a start!) and you did wonder what was going to happen next. It’s a rollercoaster ride. Like Nell’s other books I wished it had gone on for longer.  

I liked it that Jerome has liked Gemma but could only make a move on her now that she’s single.  Also, the fact that Gemma needs to re-discover herself when she’s single again and realise that her ex was just bringing her down.

Jerome was very dangerous to know…poor Gemma, she certainly puts up with a lot, but he was worth it, I feel.

Rating: 8/10

Dangerous to Know is available as an ebook here.