The Squeee

6 June is the national day ( Nationaldagen ) of Sweden. It didn't use to be a holiday, but a few years ago, after I moved to Britain, they decided to scrap Whitmonday as a red letter day and have the national day off instead. When I was in primary school, we'd perhaps gather around the flagpole in the school grounds and sing the national anthem and that was pretty much it. On the other hand, roundabout now, Swedish schools finish for the summer, so most kids and teenagers will be kind of preoccupied with other things ...

Apparently, although I'm a little late in joining the funeral, BBC4 will not be making any more Dirk Gently . Very disappointed to hear of this. The show's star Stephen Mangan said on Twitter fairly recently: It gives me no pleasure whatsoever to report that the BBC have decided not to make any more Dirk Gently. Sadface. I was hoping they'd do more of it, now that they got the formula right. But alas, it didn't get as many viewers to make it sustainable, I guess. Still, sadface. Was cancelling Dirk Gently the right decision? You can cast your vote on the Radio Times website , or simply head over to AVAAZ to sign the petition to bring it back.

Happy Diamond Jubilee, Ma'am! Yeah, I've totally seen the Queen in real life! And all the best to the Duke of Edinburgh - hope you're feeling better soon, sir!

No more worries for a month or three. Fun and laughter on a summer holiday, to make our dreams come truuuuuuue ... Or, as I am finally finished with 5 Weeks - 5 Themes , and with summer (hopefully) pounding at the gates, I've decided to change my posting frequency. Or I say that, but what I actually mean is that I'm planning on halving (roughly) the amount of reviews posted. Starting tomorrow, instead of posting one review every day, Monday through Friday, I will instead limit myself to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for the duration of June, July and August. I might go on with that indefinitely, I don't know yet.

My friend Leffe found this on YouTube, and it's a good giggle for any Pride & Prejudice fans out there. The Diaries of Lizzie Bennett , a vlog for a modern version of Lizzie Bennett. Enjoy! (Rather different from Jack Nicholson, wouldn't you say?)

Let the celebrations commence ... even though the song is a bit meh and the legend that is Engelbert Humperdinck came second from last, only just beaten by the rest of Scandinavialand ... save for Norway, who came last with their Eric Saade (last year's Swedish entry) wannabe. I should make a Swedish Ways post about Eurovision, really. Eurovision is kind of a big thing back home. Still, congrats, Loreen! And being Swedish, I can't help but feel slightly triumphant, despite not caring much for the song, Euphoria .

While looking for something completely different on Jasper Fforde's website, I came across the news that book seven of Thursday Next's adventures in the BookWorld is due out in July, somewhere between the 9th and the 20th. Wow, a new one already! The previous one was released only about a year ago! Americans will have to wait until 2 October, which is accompanied by a book tour . There's one due in July here in the UK, but there's no info yet. So, what about the new book? It's called The Woman Who Died a Lot , and is described thusly (cheekily nicked off Mr. Fforde's ffantasmagorical website in the interests of publicity): * * * The Bookworld's leading enforcement officer Thursday Next is at a low point in her life: she is four months into an enforced semi-retirement following a near fatal assassination attempt. She is yet to walk without a stick, has double vision more often than she doesn't, and limited mobility in her left arm. She returns hom

Today is the day we celebrate the life and works of Douglas Adams. Here's my choice of clothing for the day: (Obtained from Qwertee a while back.) The Squeeze was a darling this morning and volunteered bringing a towel with him to work as well, bless him. I'm probably more into observing Towel Day than he is, but he still does it. :)

Smile, you're in a romcom! It seems that Hollywood churns out films these days with little regard for authenticity, class or style. Script and substance are squashed by cheesy lines and outrageous CGI in the rapidly homogenising movie industry. This doesn’t deter cinema goers, who are happy to spend their hard-earned cash on the spiralling price of film tickets, as well as £8 on some puffed up corn, carbonated water and syrup. Yet from time to time, even this monolith of consumerist mediocrity can drop a blooper so bad that the public can’t stomach it. After much research amongst the Blockbuster bone-yard, some truly horrific finds have surfaced. There actually is such a thing as Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004) which recounts the wacky adventures of infants fighting to save America’s freedom … for the second time. Yes, there was a Baby Geniuses One (1999), which clearly failed to impress viewers any more than its sequel, as the consensus amongst critics is that both mo

Today, Norway celebrate their release from the union with Sweden. They celebrate it passionately, so happy are they to be rid of us. Ahh well. Hope you guys all have a great Syttene Mai, neighbourinos! This year, Norway's national day co-incides with Kristi himmelfärdsdag , which is Ascension Day in English. This is the day when, according to the New Testament, flight Jesus Christ took off from planet Earth, or the Son of God ascended into heaven after having died on a cross and resurrected three days later around Easter, if you will.

So much to do, so little time. Currently very busy with work, and have been for the past couple of weeks - and will be for at least part of the week to come, so I'm feeling less and less coherent. Sorry about that. Hopefully things will be back to normal by the end of next week, fingers crossed. Until then, I just hope I'll be able to post as per my usual schedule. Meanwhile, news are: We've finally started watching Once Upon a Time , which enjoyable. It's been picked up for a second series as well, so well done them. Need to set up a series link for Sunday, when Starling begins on Sky 1. Why you need to watch it? Brendan Coyle is in it, with Lesley Sharp. Another show we're watching (and probably prefer over the one just mentioned, to be brutally honest) is Grimm , which, too, is getting a second series. Which is more than can be said about Alcatraz , sadly.

How's about a trailer for the upcoming Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises , to whet your appetite? Part three of three with Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne is out 19 July in Australia, 20 July in the UK, USA and Canada, with Scandinavia and most of the rest of Europe 25-26 July. Can't wait to see Wollaton Hall as Wayne Manor! :D

The first of May, första maj, is a red letter day in Sweden. Emphasis on red. You could stay at home nursing a hangover from last night's Valborg-celebrations, or you could go out and join a demonstration. May 1st is the international labourers' day (or something like that) and the labour union movement in Sweden has traditionally been very strong, if perhaps slightly on the decline in recent years. There was a famous riot in Ådalen in 1931, made into a film by Lasse Hallström or someone. We saw it in class once upon a time. So on the first day of May, it's common to have political rallies and speeches and demonstrations, because Socialism is kind of a big deal in my home country. (If you can't distinguish between Socialism and Communism, go educate yourself now. Seriously. Especially if you think Socialism "doesn't work". Do your homework.) Anyway. Happy May Day; go stick it to the man!

On the final day of April, Swedes take to lighting big bonfires and sing to celebrate the coming of spring and to be free of the final clutches of winter. [ Source ] Traditionally, we'd put on our graduation caps and sing in choirs (especially if you're a university student at Lund or Uppsala), about how spring has sprung. The event is called Walpurgisnacht in Germany, but we call it Valborg , or Valborgsmässoafton .

Got an email a while back about a new Brontë biography that's out now. The email didn't say too much about it (like a title), aside from that it "rocks major myths surrounding the family", but there was a link to a YouTube video. Thought I'd share it and see what you reckon. Video description reads: More than just a biography, 'Charlotte Brontë's Thunder' is for readers who love a good detective story or a dark, haunting murder mystery. This shocking and controversial biography proves that Charlotte wrote all the Bronte novels. Why did she use 3 male pen names? Charlotte was desperate to protect herself and her sisters Emily and Anne from a few corrupt and dangerous men whose crimes she was secretly recording in her writing.

Through PeriodDramas.com , we learn that Haddon Hall (outside Bakewell in Derbyshire), the Thornfield of no less than three different Jane Eyre adaptations ( Gainsbourg/Hurt 1996 , Wilson/Stephens 2006 , Wasikowska/Fassbender 2011 ), is to have an exhibition of the costumes of said productions. Last year, they displayed costumes from the 2011 production, but now they're getting ones from the previous two as well. Yay!! If it was just the 2011 costumes, I wouldn't be that tempted to go - been there, seen those - but with the other two adaptations as well ... awwww, I'll totally have to. Just imagine, seeing Rochester's deep green coat ... wow. Also, the 2011 costumes are incredible : Mrs. Fairfax's apron. I loved it in the film. It's even more wonderful to behold in real life.

Provided the world doesn't actually end at the Winter Solstice this year (Mayan prophecy and all that), and missing the holiday season completely because they want to bring it in line with the publication of the very first novel in the series 23 years ago ... The final instalment in the epic Wheel of Time fantasy series finally has a release date:

Just because I hadn't thought about making this a recurring feature back when I reviewed Tiger Bay . Quoth meself: The most surprising thing was how much Korchinsky looked like Johnny Depp! Man, he must've been a heartthrob back in the day! Lookit those gorgeous brown eyes! *swoon* Ladies, behold: It's a hoot looking at really old films and realising that actually, the actors back then could easily rival the heartthrobs of today!

Admittedly, I only half-watched the film he was in, which means I can't in all good honesty review it (which is a shame, because it would be my first Hitchcock and it's on IMDb's Top 250 list), but one thing surprised me: James Mason was a rather dashing fellow back in the day!

Today, author Rosy Thornton has released her latest novel, called Ninepins . There's already a positive buzz about it, one reviewer calling it "tense, engaging and atmospheric", and Waterstones saying it has "the tension of a thriller". Ninepins is an isolated former tollhouse, standing high on a bank beside a waterway in the Cambridgeshire fens. There, since her divorce, Laura lives alone with her 12-year-old daughter, Beth. Below the bank stands the old pumphouse – a former fen drainage station – which is rented to a series of student lodgers. But this year’s lodger is different: Willow is seventeen, and in local authority care. Battling down her reservations, Laura takes her on. Do Willow’s strangenesses and her mysterious and troubled past make her a threat to Laura and, especially, to Beth? What were the circumstances surrounding the act of arson which led to Willow being taken into care? Set against the brooding landscape of the fens, Ninepins explo