compliments

Compliments - I've had a few lately and just wanted to say thank you to the kind readers who have visited and left a comment. I am myself only an occasional commenter so don't feel that I am in a position to exhort you to comment but be assured that it is lovely to receive feedback.

In part this is because one of my reasons for starting the blog was to share the happiness in my world, along with some knitting, some ideas, some inspiration and the odd book review. I find it very satisfying to think that there are people out there sharing in it. If you have recently arrived, perhaps you would like to go back and visit the first post in July last year. There's an explanation of how bollewangenhaptoet came to be named as it is. Feel free to peruse the rest of the archive while you are there.

Now, speaking of book reviews - Alexander McCall Smith is perhaps better known for his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, of which I have read only the first two. Ho hum, I'm afraid. I much prefer the Sunday Philosophy Club series and have recently read this, the fourth installment, The Careful Use of Compliments. I like the characters in this series better and find the narrative a bit meatier (but by no means heavy). The storyline of the first book irritated me greatly but they have improved since and I really enjoyed this most recent one. McCall Smith conjures up a careful Edinburgh world of philosophical and moral deliberation and detective stories which aren't quite such in the traditional sense. It's also interesting to read these beside Ian Rankin's Rebus series which conjures up quite a different Edinburgh to that of Isabel Dalhousie, her Georgian house and fondness for Peploe.

Speaking of which, I visited the 'Modern Britain: 1900-1960' exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria today (for the second time, no less!) I too have a liking for Peploe.