#Riddell Home

[plant66]

funny games Color water sort video shorts

[ukrfeminism]

A key crime measure routinely quoted by ministers excludes many crimes that affect women more often than men, the BBC can reveal.

The headline figure from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows "total" crime has halved since 2010 - but excludes sexual assault, even rape.

The ONS says it is more challenging to collect accurate data on these kinds of crimes.

But critics say the omission hides the extent of violence against women.

Hard to measure

Not all incidents are reported to the police, so the ONS surveys 30,000 randomly selected people in England and Wales each year to work out how many crimes actually take place.

The results of the latest survey will be published on Thursday.

It says it has to treat some crimes differently.

The ONS's Helen Ross said: "In face-to-face interviews, victims - most commonly women - can be unwilling to respond if their abuser is in the room or if their family is unaware of previous abuse."

And it is hard to say what counts as a single crime of, say, stalking or harassment.

Because of these factors, separate analyses are published on sexual assault, domestic abuse, stalking and harassment.

However, these crimes, all of which happen more often to women than to men, are left out of the headline measure: the number of crimes that take place.

It only includes violent crimes, theft, robbery and criminal damage.

But this is the figure that has been used by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, as well as in Conservative Party posts on X, formerly Twitter.

Violent crime statistics do not give a picture of trends in sexual assault because these crimes are classified as sexual offences and counted separately.

Scottish official statistics follow a similar approach for categorising crimes but often refer to their "violent crimes" as "non-sexual violent crimes".

The ONS has told the BBC it will add notes to charts in its reports on crime to highlight which offences are counted and which are left out.

Ms Ross also warned that any "broad assessments" on long-term crime trends based on a single metric "should be made with caution".

Sexual assaults are actually increasing, affecting just over 4% of women aged 16 to 59 in the year to March 2023, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2014.

The rise is mainly driven by an increase in unwanted sexual touching but rape, and attempted rape, are increasing too.

Stalking has also been on the rise since 2015, reported by just under 6% of women.

However, domestic abuse now affects 6.5% of women, as opposed to just over 11% in 2005.

Harriet Wistrich, of the Centre for Women's Justice, said relying on a definition of "crime" or "violence" that excludes what many women experience and worry about "gives a distorted picture of how much safer 'the general public' are".

"Women are 'the general public'. But their experience of violence is different from men's".

Labour's Dame Diana Johnson, who chairs the Home Affairs Select Committee, said not being clear whether data about falling crime includes or excludes "key forms of violence against women undermines efforts to combat it".

She added: "The government must make the scale of violence against women visible when they talk about crime in the UK."

The Home Office was asked about its use of the crime survey headline measure.

In response, it highlighted its plans to tackle domestic abuse and violence against women and girls, and efforts the government is making to speed cases through the courts.

Labour says it would get experts to agree on a single measure summarising violence against women and girls and then commit to halving those crimes.

Additional reporting by Megan Riddell, Sana Dionysiou and Rob England

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday the beautiful Scottish actress Julie Graham.

You must agree she is, and the bonnie lass has just caught up with me, we were both born in 1965, probably the only thing we have in common!

At home, Julie is an instantly recognisable face on our screens, Graham’s early years were spent with her mum Betty, who raised her alone in Irvine, Ayrshire, after her husband left when Julie was little. When Julie was eight Betty married again, to writer and broadcaster David Webster, but Betty succumbed to lung cancer when her daughter was in her late teens.

Her mother’s death, Julie says, spurred her to try and make the most of her life and she moved to London determined to become an actress. Before getting into acting, however, she worked in a law office and as a receptionist at a strip club - something she describes as “my first acting job”.

Her extensive TV credits include Taggart, Bonekickers, Survivors and The Bill. She’s also appeared in comedy movie Nuns On The Run, Some Voices, opposite Daniel Craig, and the romantic drama With Or Without You. While working on William And Mary she fell for her London-born co-star Joseph Bennet. The pair, who were married in 2002 and lived in Brighton in a formerly derelict Victorian house they renovated together from scratch. Sadly her husband took his own life in 2015.

In 2016 Julie joined the cast of Benidorm as the mother of new family, the Dawsons. She has also starred in the very successful Shetland, as Procurator Fiscal Rhona Kelly

Julie appeared in 2017 in brilliant, One of Us, set in the Highlands in the remote fictional village of Braeston. It was released internationally as a Netflix Original titled Retribution. The series received the highest number of nominations for any television production at the 2017 Scottish Royal Television Society Awards.

Since then she has turned up in Dr Who, the mini series Dun Breedin' about the taboo subject that is the menopause. The comedy-drama Queens of Mystery, all three scoring over 7/10 on my go to Movie and TV site Imdb. Julie was also on our screens in the drama Maternal about three doctors returning to post-pandemic frontline medicine after maternity leave.

Of late she has made guest appearances on two popular shows. Midsomer Murders and Silent Witnesss as well as the Edinburgh thriller series Payback with Peter Mullen Derek Riddell and Morvern Christie. Julie is lined up to star in The Hardacres an upcoming British period drama television series for Channel 5.

[aliteraryprincess]

TRCC Readathon Day 7

And as I expected, I didn't get to read anything today. I once again spent the whole day working on my dissertation. I actually did have time that I could have read when I got home, but turns out I forgot my kindle in my office. So no reading for me today. But that's okay. I think finishing three books during the readathon (with two of them being 5 stars) is pretty good.

Thank you so much to @thereadingchallengechallenge for hosting this readathon!

The Uninhabited House by Charlotte Riddell - finished, 5 stars

Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand - finished, 5 stars

Life Studies by Robert Lowell - finished, 2 stars

Sensational Victorian by Robert Lee Wolff - 148/529 pages

Ariadne by Ouida - 11/42 chapters

[justablah56]

MAYHAPS A RIDDEL FOR THEE???

I HAVE MANY CITYS BUT NO HOMES. I HAVE MOUNTAINS BUT NO ROCKS. I HAVE RIVERS AND OCEANS BUT NO WATER. I HAVE A KEY BUT NO LOCK. I HAVE A ROSE BUT NO FLOWERS. WHAT AM I? HEHEHEHE

hmmmmm is it a map mayhaps ?

[uhlikzsuzsanna]

Poetry for Every Day of the Year: National Theatre Talks

Join us for an hour of poetry dedicated to the people of Ukraine, read by actors on stage at the National Theatre. Allie Esiri was joined by Asa Butterfield, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Kate Fleetwood, Tom Hiddleston, Dária Plahtíy and Helena Bonham Carter. Chris Riddell live drew the evening.

Signed copies of both A Poet for Every Day of the Year and A Nursery Rhyme for Every Night of the Year are available from the National Theatre Bookshop. Every purchase supports the work of the National Theatre: https://shop.nationaltheatre.org.uk/c...

This event was performed on the Olivier stage, National Theatre, London on Friday 17 March 2023.

--

As you enjoy watching please consider making a donation in support of the Disaster Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. All donations directly support people in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Moldova, and Hungary.

Text POETRY to 70150 to donate £10.

Texts cost £10 plus your standard network charge. The whole £10 will go to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. You must have bill payer’s permission.

Or visit DEC.org.uk/Ukraine to donate online. *

--

2:13 Lift Every Voice and Sing (James Weldon Johnson)

4:57 Rain (Don Paterson)

6:44 Little Gidding (T S Eliot)

10:02 Words, Wide Night (Carol Ann Duffy)

11:31 Love After Love (Derek Walcott)

13:28 Coupling (Fleur Adcock)

14:17 Variation on a Lennon and McCartney Song (Wendy Cope)

15:15 He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven (W B Yeats)

16:23 On being asked for a War Poem (W B Yeats)

17:22 Atlantis--a Lost Sonnet (Eavan Boland)

19:00 I See You Dancing, Father (Brendan Kennelly)

20:36 Michael Finnegan (Anon)

22:58 Old Mother Goose (Anon)

25:44 Three Wise Men of Gotham (Anon)

26:22 Today I Saw a Little Worm (Spike Milligan)

26:36 The Tickle Rhyme (Ian Serraillier)

26:48 Roses are red (Anon)

27:02 A peanut sat on a railroad track (Anon)

27:16 Soldier, Soldier (Anon)

29:28 Funeral Blues (W H Auden)

31:52 June, 1915 (Charlotte Mew)

33:10 To My Brother (Vera Brittain)

34:44 Requiem for the Croppies (Seamus Heaney)

36:28 At least now, my friend says (Serhiy Zhadan)

38:54 Sun, terrace, lots of green (Serhiy Zhadan)

40:44 The city is no more (Iryna Shuvalova)

43:20 From The Book of Sir Thomas More (William Shakespeare)

46:41 Home (Warsan Shire)

49:11 Refugees (Brian Bilston)

51:55 Small Kindnesses (Danusha Laméris)

55:45 Extract from The Caucasus (Taras Shevchenko)

[betterthanapokeintheeye]

30 gifts for 30 days of November

Day 4!

Here is the fourth of thirty Better Than a Poke in the Eye recommended gifts for the book lover in your life even if that book lover is YOU!

Day four's recommendation is What You Need to Be Warm by Neil Gaiman

I don't think we need to push why this is in our list, read the official synopsis below.

Sometimes it only takes a stranger in a dark place... to say we have the right to be here, to make us warm in the coldest season.

In 2019, Neil Gaiman asked his Twitter followers: What reminds you of warmth? Over 1,000 responses later, Neil began to weave replies from across the world into a poem in aid of the UNHCR's winter appeal. It revealed our shared desire to feel safe, welcome and warm in a world that can often feel frightening and lonely.

Published in hardback and illustrated by a group of artists from around the world, What You Need to Be Warm is an exploration of displacement and flight from conflict through the objects and memories that represent warmth. It is about our right to feel safe, whoever we are and wherever we are from. It is about holding out a hand to welcome those who find themselves far from home.

Featuring new, original illustrations from Chris Riddell, Benji Davies, Yuliya Gwilym, Nadine Kaadan, Daniel Egnéus, Pam Smy, Petr Horácek, Beth Suzanna, Bagram Ibatoulline, Marie-Alice Harel, Majid Adin and Richard Jones, with a thought-provoking cover from Oliver Jeffers. Sales of every copy of this book will help support the work of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, which helps forcibly displaced communities and stateless people across the world.

R.R.P. £12.99

You can order a copy from our Bookshop or any of our affilate links below

Better Than a Poke Bookshop .org

Amazon UK

Waterstones

Foyles

WHSmith

Blackwells

Forbidden Planet

[painting-with-much-passion]

Lesser Known Waifu #10 - Riddel (Chrono Cross)

This is going to be my last painting for a while.

I am burnt out!

So, this is Riddel from Chrono Cross laying on the floor of Viper Manor (her home) alongside the animal form of Lynx, the game' main villain.

I took inspiration from Jasmine and her pet tiger Raja from the Aladdin (1992) animated movie (Lynx is much smaller than Raja however).

Ridel is very elegant, she was among my favorites and has a memorable attire and she is themed to snakes - because her full name is Riddel Viper, she has a circlet with a protruding viper head on it, in fact - as painted here.

Her hair is slightly different - I made her frontal fringe less "emo-like" as it looks in the official art I used for reference, too gloomy for someone like her methinks.

I did not raelly understand how her lower red frills would have worked if she would have found herself laid down - couldn't find even some reference to get an idea - so I simplified her dress belower knees height.

Riddel face I took inspiration from a live-action cosplay of hers from 2011 - so the face is very close to how the cosplayer looked, but with less sharp proportions.

Regardless, I hope you'll like this work of mine, as it will be my latest for quite a while - I guess a couple of weeks, until I resume my "Lesser Known Waifu" series.

[janahanooo]

Staying in the Rapunzel!Yuu thingy, I was thinking, who would R!Yuu realate to the most? And why?

I think Riddle, cus like, you know. Mommy issues? Anyways

Riddle: Please do tell, why did you and your companion barged in, on this fine evening?

Grim: Right, um. My henchman here had a bad dream. And I figured, that you would be the perfeckt person to calm them down. Seeing how you all have the same problems...

R!Yuu: It's nothing really...

Riddel: *sigh* no no, make yourself comfortable. I'll make some tea for us to drink while you calm down.

I can see him brewing tea and humming some kind of calming tune for his anger issues

Riddle: Here, some herbal tea. Now, tell me, ehat's bothering you? And where did Grim go?

R!Yuu: Oh, Grim went to see Ace and Deuce. And as I said it's nothing, just a bad dream about my home...

Riddle: Oh. May I know what happened? If it's okay with you.

: Sure... I dreamt about my mother, saying I shouldn't have left her side. Threathening me, to find me and drag me home and lock me up in the tower I used to live...

Riddle: oh dear..

R!Yuu: and- and another picture that stayed is my first friend- he- I I couldn't protect him I swear- I

Riddle: R!Yuu! Calm down! Shhhh don't cry... it's okay..

And then, Riddle would coudle Yuu until they calmed down. He is sweet as a strawberry tart. I can see him thinking about that maybe he had a bit better life in this part. They have similaryties and he's gracefull he can help one his friends in hard times.

And he's probably thinking about a murdering plan if any of the adeuce duo would mention this topic.

The next thing R!Yuu know that Riddle sleeping beside them on the couch soundless and muttering "don't even think about getting away with this.." he is so adorable, but don't get on his bad side. Or it's off with your head. But all and all, he still helps with your mommy issues, and you help him with his.

[lovelymindescape]

hi! i was wondering if i could get romantic male matchup for the hobbit and/or stranger things?

my pronouns are she/her

i'm enfp 7w8, leo

i'm 6'0 and have amber eyes, long gold blond curly hair and hourglass figure

i'm positive and upbeat person, i try to see the bright side in most situations

i'm friendly, energetic, confident, sarcastic, responsible, maybe a bit chaotic, cheerful and bubbly

i care about my friends and family a lot, and go out of my way to show it

i enjoy having fun and living life to the fullest

i'm very competitive and passionate person

i really like puzzles, riddles and crosswords

i love making people smile

i have morbid, dark sense of humor

sometimes i randomly say a weird obscure fact in the middle of conversation

i can play on violin, cello, piano, guitar, saxophone, harp and drums, i'm currently learning how to play on trumpet

i like poetry and sometimes i write a poem or two, also i'm writing my book

i'm ballet dancer since i was a kid and i love performing

i'm working on my own cartoon

i never quite grew out of the fantasy phase, and i'm still enamored with tales of changelings and witches

i work as illustrator for fantasy books and books for kids

i'm kinda struggling with taking rest, doing nothing, because there is always something to do, something new to learn, etc.

i'm afraid of stagnation

i overuse this kind of emojis→(⁠ㆁ⁠ω⁠ㆁ⁠)

my style is something between whimsigothic and cryptidcore

i love: collecting things, astronomy, tea, making and watching movies, forests, making jewelry, cooking, baking, d&d, horrors, animals, plants, gardening, traveling, art, history, world mythologies, learning new things, psychology, handicraft

sorry if it's too chaotic

i hope you have a fantastic day (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

You sound like a very cool person to me <3 I had much Information to work with and it's not to chaotic

I ship you with

LINDIR

you are an elf of Rivendell

your like the good soul of the house

he had known you from the very beginning

one of your closest friends

after years you both had fallen for eachother , but tried to hide it

one day he was walking through the many of the floors to get a clear mind

when he came to your door he heard you playing music

he knocked , you let him in

you were a bit nervous since you were now alone with him but you just kept playin

this day he just sat there and watched you in an awe

after that , the next day dwarfes came to your home , since you good with instruments , you were there to "entertain" them

one of the dwarfs admired you from afar , that´s when Lindir got jealous

he realised he really loved you and he couldn`t keep it to himself anymore

after the dinner , he took you to a bit more silent place

you had a feeling what was coming so when he started talking , you just cut him of by wrapping your hand around his neck

since that day you were happy in a relationship

sometimes you do riddels or puzzels with him , sometimes he just watces you practice ballet or one of your instruments

you write eachother loveletters and poems

at night you sometimes just lay in his arm and he tells you stories or reads to you

he makes sure , that when your working you take a break , drink and eat enough and not overwork yourself

your dates are mostly just meeting maybe at a lake and you make jewelry, while he does some of his hobbies , or you maybe do candle drawing , so it´s mostly just craftdates , or you go out at night and watch the stars

so you got a very loving partner , who would do anthing with and for you

hey , i hope you like it . i´m sorry that´s it so short , i hope it´s ok

it was my first one so tell me if it´ ok and/or what i could do better

[the---hermit]

23 books in 2023

I was tagged by @medustudies thank you!!💜🌿(I know it took ages for me to complete this)

I had done this last year (here's the post) and I read more or less half of the books on that list. I am a mood reader so I don't really follow tbrs, but I think it's fun to create a list at the beginning of the year and then see how many books I have actually read at the end. I have lowered my reading goal for 2023 at 52 book, so one book a week, because I have no idea how much I will realistically be able to read with going back to uni and everything. I therefore tried to curate this list a bit more, including also a few books that were on last year's list. Since I want to lower the number of unread books on my shelves I included in this list only books I have physically in my home (some aren't mine, but of some family members, but I didn't include anything from my wishlist). We'll see at the end of the year how many of these I actually read.

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

The Sandman volume 7 by Neil Gaiman

The Sandman volume 8 by Neil Gaiman

Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell

The Tower Of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski

Paradise Lost by John Milton

Bisexuality In The Ancient World by Eva Cantarella

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Scheletri by Zerocalcare

La Scuola Di Pizze In Faccia Del Professor Calcare by Zerocalcare

Bloody Summer by Carmen Maria Machado

Cain's Jawbone by Torquemada

La Strega e Il Capitano by Leonardo Sciascia

The House At Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

Alice Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

100 Hugs by Chris Riddell

Celtic Myths by T.W. Rolleston

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Japanese Tattoos by Yori Moriarty

The Misplaced Legion by Harry Turtledove

Solanin by Inio Asano

I don't know who else in the knife gang hasn't done it yet, so I'll just tag the post and whoever sees and hasn't done it consider yourself tagged! I also tag @oneanxiousstudybuddy and @just-a-cup-of-anxietea !!

[loyaltytm]

𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐔𝐒 𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐏𝐄 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐋

[ lee sung kyung, she/her, cisfemale ] — was that PENELOPE RIDDELL? the THIRTY TWO year old is a FORTNUM AND MASON CLERK, how exciting to see them this season! rumors have it they are NURTURING and WARM, but i’ve heard they are PROTECTIVE and DRY as well — maybe that’s why they’ve been called the CANCERIAN. I have even heard that HER CHILDREN WERE NOT HER LATE HUSBAND’S. —  only time will tell. 

full name: penelope riddell née song nickname: pen, penny, pea age: two and thirty years old gender + pronouns: cisfemale + she/her sexuality: heterosexual marital status: widowed, unbetrothed

nationality: british social standing: working class, single mother and widower languages: english education: homeschooled occupation: general store clerk hobbies: sewing, embroidery, drawing, painting, playing with her daughter

height: 5'10" build: on the thinner side due to stress and poor diet hair: dark brown, usually tied up and out of her face eyes: lifted , fox-like eyes complexion: pale skin in a permanent state of rosy, borderline flush with fever fashion: would be more stylish if she had the flexibility to be

tw partner death, child death

although she lived a life long before her husband and children came along, its hard to remember when you hold such little regard for the time. her youth, although the memory escapes her, is spent in a small orphanage in london with an elderly widow. pen grows up drawing in the dirt and imagining a life where she might build her own family. she knew that when she would be so lucky to have them, she would hold them so close that they would never know the loneliness she felt as a child.

now despite being a lonely child, penelope grows up to be beautiful woman. she has no problem in finding a husband, but she finds love in the brown eyes benjamin riddell. he has a family of six siblings and two parents to complete the set and pen has never known such love than to be with their family. ben is dependable, and kind, and although he is gone most of the year as a sailor, there are happy together. her heart aches when he leaves but soon... while he sets sails, pretty penelope's tummy grows rounder and rounder until the fruit of her womb grows so heavy she has no choice but to give birth to her son with only the midwife and her husband’s sisters by her side. all is well for the months where he is home, and when he isn't, she has her darling little bumble bee, benjamin riddell ii.

bee, just shy of eleven, takes her hand solemnly. please mama, can i go with papa? he looks so eager and ben is happy to spend more time with his son but what should be a calm day in the water culminates into a freak storm. although she promises to hold her little family tight, there are times when your grip slackens. the days afterwards are wrought with nausea, sick with grief, so she thinks.

if it hadn't been for her sister in law, penelope would have feared for the worst. seraphine's offer to let her stay in her cottage until she could land on her feet is kind, and its even kinder that she does not rescind it when she finds out pen is with child. she is by her side when she gives birth to the last of their little family, gwendolyn riddell. some people are nasty and their cruel speculation brings about baseless rumours.

now, her heart still aches for her boys. every fibre of her being is tainted with grief, missing them both dearly despite having long completed their journey to the pearly gates. but pen has no intention of losing herself in her grief, knowing she has a young daughter to take care of. she will not make the mistake of letting go again. to support her and her daughter, pen works at fortnum and mason.

tldr; a single mom, working at fortnum and masons to support her daughter while being sad about losing her husband and son < / 3

personality

pen has a motherly disposition, bleed through of her parenting style. she’s nurturing and warm — always happy to offer a kind word or wrap you in a warm hug if need be. she also makes a mean mug of soup.

having suffered loss after loss, pen prefers to hold what she loves to her chest. over-protective, maybe. cautious is what she’d rather say. she doesn’t chase adventures like her boys had been. practical-minded, she’d rather keep her feet on the ground.

she loves to doodle. the thought of being an artist never crossed her pragmatic mind, but she does love the idea of painting.

if she finds that you’re a little too wild for her speed or she does not like your conversation, she will curl into herself and shrink. she has a tendency to become dry.

wanted connections

flirty customers idk maybe they only come to fortnum and masons and buy the overpriced cheese because they wanna see the milfs

friends of her late husband! he was a sailor!

get her out of the house mayb,

ajfkjfdkfgkn i would like unlikely friends

[koheletgirl]

tell us about ur phoebe bridgers tattoo !! (if you want)

oh oh omg ok so i wasn't going to say anything until i got it (bc yk) but i actually can't contain myself. so one thing about me is im a little crazy about phoebe bridgers and another thing about me is i am obsessed with chinese satellite. anyway ive known id get a phoebe bridgers tattoo since like 2020, but i wanted to wait until i found something that felt perfect. then my partner came home one day with the punisher cd. and i saw the booklet. so this is the chinese satellite art from the punisher booklet, by chris riddell:

and it's going to be on my leg. b"h 🧿🧿🧿🪬🪬🪬

[52booksproject]

Book 42: Art Matters

Back to the RNG and it popped up 701: Philosophy and theory of fine and decorative art. Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color by Philip Ball looked brilliant, but it only has an ebook version in Spanish, so that was a no-go. So I went with Neil Gaiman's Art Matters: Because your imagination can change the world.

It's a set of a few essays by the renowned author, the first exhorting people to read fiction, support libraries, and encouraging children to read (what they want, not what you want them to). Very much propaganda, and commissioned as such by a library organization, but it's for a good cause- reading and libraries- so it's ok. He admits it's in his self-interest as an author to promote such things, but he says he's more enthusiastic to do so as a reader. (Yeah, right, Neil, we're onto you! After all....)

The other major essay was one encouraging people to make good art. Called, surprisingly, "Make Good Art". I think the message is all well and good, but telling people to make good art- to reference the Simpsons again- is like Mr. Burns telling Daryl Strawberry to hit a home run as "good" coaching. It's easy to say to make something good, but a lot harder to actually accomplish it. I think a better message is to encourage people to just make art. Good art will come and bad art will come and not everyone will agree on which is which.

Incidentally I borrowed both the audio book and the ebook of Art Matters. I'm glad I got both because the ebook is gorgeously illustrated by Chris Riddell. But it's also a fustercluck of some kind of handwriting font that my feeble ADD brain couldn't stick to, so getting the words through the audio book first helped an awful lot.

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK:

Sure, it's short, insightful, and very beautifully drawn.

ART PROJECT:

So, I made art of Neil Gaiman. He suggests making your own art and not copying other people's. Which is too bad, because I generally try to match the style of the illustrated books. So I compromised and did partially my style a little sketchy like the book's illustrations. Is this the good art Gaiman said to make? I don't know, but it is art, and I think that's what's important.

[meddling-in-horror]

page turners to screen dreams: adaptations from book to film

It’s hard to deny the power of a good adaptation. Growing up in a generation where there was a good ten years where I saw many of my favorite books adapted for the screen in varying degrees of ‘close enough to be enjoyed on its own’ to ‘single handedly killed the vhs industry’ (iykyk), I have an appreciation for adaptations done not-so-well. However, this also means that when a story I love is adapted well, I appreciate it all the more, two of my favorites being Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs and Henry Selick’s Coraline. 

Starting with Silence, the key to this adaptation lies in the screenwriting of Ted Tally. While Thomas Harris’s ability to write interesting and three dimensional female characters who exist without being defined by the men around them is questionable, the combination of Demme’s direction, Tally’s writing, and Jodie Foster’s performance as the iconic Clarice Starling make her a fully fleshed and believably interesting character. I was a fan of the film long before reading the book, and became even more of a fan afterward reading both book and Tally’s screenplay. Some of my favorite moments in the film are ones where Tally lifted dialogue directly from the text of Harris’s novel, often with little to no change. In particular, Jack Crawford’s line “You spook easily, Starling?” has always been a moment that I enjoy, particularly because of the silence surrounding the moment as Clarice takes in the scene of Crawford’s office and the crime scene photos of the Buffalo Bill murders. This is an incredibly strong book-to-film adaptation that’s strength lies in the moments that were taken directly from the source material, and were interpreted flawlessly by Tally, Demme, and the cast as a whole. Overall, Silence is something that I would consider a near perfect interpretation of Harris’s original text, a trend that Tally continued with the screenplay for the prequel Red Dragon.

There is also the matter of changes that must be made to make a book more suitable for the screen. For this, we can look to Henry Selick’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. While not my first Gaiman book (it was Stardust, and at 9 or 10 I was most assuredly too young to be reading it), this one remains my favorite (one day I hope to get my illustrated copy signed by both Neil himself and Chris Riddell). There would have been no way for Coraline to be on the big screen without making several changes. In the novella, most of the story is told through the titular Coraline’s inner monologue, as she spends much of the story wandering the grounds of her new home completely alone. Since spending nearly two hours watching a child talk to herself wouldn’t necessarily make for a very interesting movie - at least in this context, Selick introduced the character of Wybie. He also tied Wybie further into the story by changing one of the ghost children from - what I assume is - the child of a faerie to his grandmother’s identical twin sister. The film, while not an exact adaptation, retains every single element of Gaiman’s original story that makes the novel so intensely frightening. The changes made allow the film to be read easier on the screen, and for the audience to watch Coraline interact with the world around her in a way that feels more realistic, whether she’s in her own home or in the world of the Other Mother. Selick’s writing sells the image of a truly lonely girl, who - while surrounded by people - feels isolated in a new and unfamiliar environment across the country, and abandoned and neglected by her parents. 

Adaptations, good or bad, are created to be enjoyed. While some are good enough to be considered something separate from the source material, some are certainly not (LXG I’m looking directly into your eyes). Nevertheless, I feel like the adaptations I’ve mentioned here are among the best there are.

[preblesboys]

Thomas Everard House

Mrs. Suzannah Riddell the widowed wife of Dr. George Riddell lived here with her nieces in laws Rachel and Camille Warrington. I can make an educated guess that this was Lewis Warrington’s boyhood home and possibly up to when he briefly attended William and Mary.