Review: Jane Austen Centre (MUSEUM)

Another delayed review for you! And when I say 'review' this is just another 'you-should-really-go-and-see-this-because-it-was-great-and-you'll-just-love-it-yeah'. So let me tell you about the Jane Austen Centre in Bath! (You should really go and see this because it was great and you'll just love it! Yeah!)

Essentially, this museum is located just a stone's throw away from the famous Cresent. As well as this it is on Gay Street, where the author herself used to reside for some months in 1805.

Now, if you are an Austen fan this is everything you could have dreamed for and MORE. I know. How is it possible?! (I hear you ask.) What could possibly be there?! Well, let me just tell you now.

When you enter the house, you are greeted by a fine gentleman wearing traditional clothing of that era. You buy your tickets from the gift shop (which I recommend sniffing around later.) Then you make your way upstairs where there are scheduled times for a short presentation on Jane before you enter the rest of the exhibition. We ended up having to wait approximately 10 minutes. However. This was very lucky on my part. Because, I am particularly in love with Persuasion by our dear Jane. So if you are too - listen up! There are two rooms for you to wait in. Go through to the smaller second one!! Do it! We nearly didn't! Would have been the greatest mistake of my life! In this second room, everything is devoted to the 2007 ITV adaptation of the novel. It's Persuasion-galore! (I am also in love with this version of the story too. And Sally Hawkins who plays Anne. She is just fabulous.) In any case, they have one of the outfits used in the television film, on a life-size model. (Bonnet included.) So of course a photo shoot ensued. On the walls are facts and copies of scripts from Persuasion and it is just a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Now, I won't spoil the rest of the exhibition - I feel as if I could write about Jane all day - but there is one other important thing of note to get you down to Bath. Dressing up. That's right. YOU CAN DRESS UP IN THE CLOTHES LIKE JANE AUSTEN USED TO WEAR. I think we all just need to calm down a little bit. Needless to say, I did dress up. Yellow gown. Matching yellow bonnet. All whilst talking to Anne. (Did I mention that the staff dress up as all the heroines? I told Anne (the lovely staff member) that she was my favourite. She was even kind enough to have a photograph with me, which I really appreciated.)

So there you have it. An Austen dream. Ticket price for an adult is £11 (and steadily gets cheaper, a student ticket is £8.50.) For me, and my flatmates, it was worth the price. We had some good old clean Austen fun!

You can find out more about the Jane Austen Centre here.

Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 (FILM)

Director: Francis Lawrence

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth.

So, I imagine you don't really need informing about this film. You probably don't even need the trailer above, or for me to tell you anything about this, because you've probably seen it already.

But I felt like it needed mentioning because it seems particularly relevant today.

The film itself is what you would expect from The Hunger Games series. Bleak in its cinematography, President Snow at his chilling best, and death, death galore. And it's at this last point that I want to speak. So this won't be a 'traditional' review in terms of the film as a whole. I want to purely talk about its message.

Currently, there are eerie parallels that can be drawn between the two worlds. Ours and this fictional one. Continually, throughout the film, there is the talk of 'death not being personal', the sense of 'they did this to us, so we will do it to them' and action that cries 'no mercy'.

'This is a war', we are repeatedly told. And with this comes the dilemma. At what cost? When does an eye for an eye end? As we all know it makes the world blind. That's exactly what we are blinded with here. Each side, recklessly attacking the other, without thought to the lives lost. Killing civilians, destroying people's homes and bombing each other is not the way forward. You cannot fight hate with hate. It breeds and spreads into this contagious disease that rots everything it touches. In the end, after whatever 'win', new hate will grow in the hole left behind. It's cyclical and will never end. Only if one party decides to fight a different way, to think about the consequences of each action and to not forget the lessons of the past. We have a funny way of glossing over history: easily forgetting the atrocities that happened.

Of course this is a Hollywood version of that. With fictional monsters. It is made for a 12A audience. But the message remains the same to the current state of the world we find ourselves in. Remember: hate only breeds hate. And in this film, we see lost lives of characters we love. We see homes destroyed. We see children die. We need to remember that at the end of the day, we are all human. Amazingly, humanity is so easily forgotten. If this film, based on a Young Adult fiction book reminds us of that, then it is worth a watch (and the extortionate price of the cinema ticket.)

Big Brother is watching you.

1984. A book I probably shouldn't admit to having never read. But I went to see the play anyway. And it was amazing. And now I need to read the book.

The acting was fantastic, backed up by some very clever staging. The bleak one room set for the majority of the play really added to the controlled nature of the material, creating an erie atmosphere that lingered from the get-go. This was wonderfully contrasted with a live screen that inhabited the very top part of the backdrop. (Bringing to life Big Brother.)

The whole thing was confusing, engrossing and scarily relevant. It seemed as if the book had been written for stage it felt like it translated so well. (But then I might be wrong, as I now need to read the book.)

If you can - go and see this! It is currently showing at the Nottingham Playhouse until 26th September. From then I think that it is touring. (This might need a google.)

Persephone Books

This is just a little note about a lovely independent book shop in London. As the title suggests, the book shop is called 'Persephone Books' that reprints forgotten fiction and non-fiction usually written by women from the 20th century. The photo above is the swag that me and my flatmate ended up walking out with.

Their books are a little pricey (£12 each, or at the time we went 3 for £30 making them a tenner each), however you can forgive them for this for the beautiful versions they publish of these stories. (Also that, and the fact that they ain't no Waterstones, and need to survive somehow.) Each book has a beautiful grey cover, with a special painterly pattern inside, that somehow relates to the story. When you buy a book, you can pick up a free corresponding bookmark. They also have a free bi-annual catalogue that you can pick up in store which definitely helps with the decision making, as there are so many to choose from!

So if you're in the Bloomsbury area, have a little mooch around. I'm sure they'll be something you'd like the sniff of.