Katie Butcher

This is a fictional novel based around actual historical people, mainly Anne Boleyn’s lesser-known sister, Mary. As a rule I enjoy historical novels, particularly ones set in the Tudor period as I’ve been interested in the Tudor period since I was young. I find Philippa Gregory’s novels to be great fun. The storylines are often totally outrageous, and just when you think the story can’t get possibly get any more shocking, it does. ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ wasn’t as scandalous as some others I’ve read by Philippa Gregory (e.g the Wideacre trilogy) but it had it’s moments. Anne Boleyn is portayed so unfavourably as an utterly ruthless manipulator that you struggle to feel any sympathy for her by the time it comes to her inevitable demise. This is a most enjoyable page-turner, although should certainly not be taken as a realistic portrayal of Henry VIII and his wives and mistresses.

This has inspired me to re-read ‘The Six Wives of Henry VIII’ by Alison Weir. I remember borrowing this excellent and interesting biography from the school library when I was 14 or 15. It is (as far as I know) a realistic and accurate potrayal of Henry VIII and his wives.

Nigel has had problems with his server over the past week (i.e. it died). That’s the reason for a lack of posts and problems with this site recently. But we seem to be back working again now so I can finish the drafts I started earlier in the month.

I’m so unbelievably sick of hearing endless talk about ‘Celebrity Big Brother’. I’m fortunate enough not to have seen even a single moronic second of it, but I would prefer to not hear anything of it at all. I resent the fact that so much time and attention is devoted to the programme and the self-absorbed z-listers who are on it. But yet again it appears things have been blown completely out of proportion. It’s all they would talk about on the radio yesterday, and then it seems it’s carrying on today, much to my frustration.

I wonder how many of those 10000+ (as I last heard it) people who felt strongly enough to complain have actually stopped watching it? If someone objects then best thing to do is not watch it, because that’s the only way Channel 4 might pay attention. As it is, they’re rubbing their hands in glee.

Personally I couldn’t care less about the whole thing, but I do when, like at the moment, you don’t hear about anything else and it’s getting spoken of in the Commons and overshadowing Gordon Brown’s trip to India.

To brighten up the office, I treated myself to some great posters from www.gbposters.com. I meant to get some before Christmas, but it turned out to be a good thing I didn’t get round to it because now many of the posters on the site have been discounted. After spending about an hour on Wednesday evening choosing a selection of posters, I placed finally my order. The shopping cart program they have isn’t great; I wanted to modify an order after I placed it, but unfortunately you can’t. However, I called them on Thursday morning, and they were really helpful and happy to make modification to my order. The posters came this morning.

My poster selection:
Wave Rider
New York – Asleep on Girder
Misty Morning
Maldives- Fihalhohi Island
Teton National Park, Wyoming
Monument Valley
UK Political Map
World Map

Yay, I just checked my bank account online and noticed I actually earned a decent amount of interest on my current account in 2006 (it all got paid in on 31st December). I’m so glad I saw the light earlier last year and ditched my absolutely rubbish Barclays current account and switched to a Nationwide FlexAccount. Now I’ve earned 40 times more interest than I would have done had I kept my Barclays account, which is really quite staggering. Barclays interest rate is 0.1% which means in a year you get £1 for every £1000, whereas Nationwide is 4.25% so you get £42.50 for every £1000.

Nigel and I have now also taken the plunge and are in the process of switching our joint account from Royal Bank of Scotland (another 0.1% rubbish account) to Alliance & Leicester which has a great rate of 6.1% and at the moment the best current account available.

Oh yes, and if any one else is thinking they might switch to Alliance & Leicester, let me know as you both get £50 for ‘recommend a friend’.