Wednesday, February 6, 2013

What I’m reading #93

Keep calm and curry on.

Mansfield and Sargeson in Swedish. I don’t understand a word of it but doesn’t it look lovely.


Don’t lower your mask – as if the Sevens weren’t bad enough, Wellington will be packed with Katherine Mansfield scholars and fans from February 8-11. Key speakers: Gerri Kimber and Vincent O’Sullivan, co-editors of the new edition of the stories published by Edinburgh University Press. Dame Sarah Sandley will also be in attendance. The full programme is here. I seldom wish I were in Wellington, but time spent with Gerri, Vincent and Sarah is always time well spent.

A bird ballet. It’s only starlings, but still.

Er ist wieder da (in English, He’s Back) is a bestselling German comic novel about Hitler. Brilliant cover design. Now that’s what I call typography.

I don’t know much about wine but I know what I like – this label. It is for Dunnarunna pinot noir and it reads:
This wine was made at a winery, from grapes grown on dirt soils in a vineyard somewhere, fermented and then matured in oak barrels clearly for a good deal of time. If that sounds a bit vague, it’s because the winery went belly up and the proprietor’s buggered off overseas, so all we’re left with is what’s in the bottle. But luckily for you, what’s in the bottle is absolutely magic – a hauntingly perfumed, rich and silky Pinot Noir from Marlborough that would be a steal at three times the price. So in honour of our expatriated friend, we’ve named this bargain of the year Dunnarunna – which means “to slink off or scarper”.
The website asks: Is this the greatest image on Earth? The photo was taken from the top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Been there, done that. Dubai is not beautiful but this is undeniably a great image.

On the other hand: here is the Italian actress Virna Lisi who started her career in theatre in Milan then went to Hollywood in the 1960s to make movies with Lemmon, Curtis, Sinatra, Steiger etc. She turned down the title role of Barbarella: good for her. Here she is six years ago, aged 70. Such confidence:


Monitors: Linda Olsson, Sarah Fraser, David Thompson

2 comments:

Edna Pritchard said...

I would very much like to know the name of the designer of the original book cover, copied in almost every other langauge. Can you help me?
Mike

Stephen Stratford said...

Don't know, sorry. The German publisher will be able to tell you.