The Word Cloud

It was at some point, between the passing of the old year and the emerging of the new, that I overdosed on Jane Austen.  A week’s rural retreat would be of no avail, as I suspect  I might well be encouraged in the habit.   Self medication has been attempted, with doses of Simenon; Margaret Allingham, Caleb Carr a Study in Sherlock’  and the last work of Michael Holroyd which, unfortunately, resulted in a relapse.

But I feel that I am on the mend.

The cause  of my addiction has been a mention of ‘breach of promise’ in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ 

In previous blogs, I wrote  about a  ‘breach of promise’ case that I had been researching  and I contemplated some sort of drama in which the narrative is constructed out of genealogical research. (This is an an interest of mine and also, partly, a professional concern.)   This led me to consider a plot where an Australian couple discover they are descended from characters in ‘Pride and Prejudice’   I did see comic potential in this.  For example, a descendant of Darcy could have become a Basil Fawlty character, who is worried about the loss of silver plate, as visitors inspect Pemberley - now open to the public for a fee.

One of the progammes on TV was about a Jane Austen cult and the industry that had been built around it.  Another horrifying programme was about Janeites - a secret society with it’s own high priestess. I would be trespassing on sacred texts and, what is worse, I would have to write funny stuff too!  It is best left alone?  But once these things start?  

It is my day off work and I am going shopping in London for a digital camera.  I have never bought one of these.   I saw one that might do - in a sale - but I hope the sale is now finished, but the same camera is for sale at ‘John Lewis’ for about the same price.  I cannot make decisions, but feel I have to buy one, or I will spend the next year unable to decide.