Elizabeth Gaskell, also Super.

I've just finished reading North and South.

One of those books where it feels bittersweet to get to the last chapter.

Given my pathological fondness for unresolved sexual tension, this was a really good book. I won't spoil it for those who have not yet read it, but for the bulk of the book the main characters are more conscious of detesting than loving each other. (50 points).

The female protagonist, Margaret Hale, is a gutsy brunette (10 points), given to saying things she oughtn't (20 points), whom finds herself getting cross with insufferable sentimental idiots who hit on her (15 points).

The male protagonist is a moody Northern Mill Owner, who is not impressed by frippery and hadn't planned on ever loving anyone till this snobby girl annoyed him (20 points).

The book addresses a number of sociopolitical issues - the class system, the industrial revolution, challenges to religion, and the place of women in society (50 points).

I never bothered watching the 2004 BBC TV adaptation. For a start, I had not yet read the book and was conscious that there is a definite order in which things should happen when it comes to the introducing yourself to a story. Always book first, then film. Or in the case of the da Vinci Code , neither if I can help it.

But more saliently, the actress playing our heroine was someone I was already familiar with through the popular British soap Eastenders. She played an annoying girl called Sarah who had perpetually grotty hair, and over-pronounced everything in the unfortunate manner of many stage-school spawn. She did not have an unattractive face, but it pained me to look at it somehow, and if she could ruin Eastenders then I did not want her shafting a Penguin.

Look at this rubbish. Armitage makes a splendid Mr Thornton, but a) that girl = RARGH, annoying, b) the speech about the un-shaken hand is not even in the book, annoying. Margaret simply misses they he has put his hand out and is instantly regretful. This interpretation of Margaret is slappable.



The entire adaptation is them explaining things through the medium of invented speeches which are expressed as thoughts or background in the original text.

I think there is a point where if you cannot convey a story through the speech within, and you feel the need to re-write key aspects of the plot, just don't bother.