Julian Fellowes’s Belgravia is a new book/audiobook/app series from the creator of Downton Abbey. It is set in the Belgravia quarter of London in 1841 with a prequel set in Brussels in 1815. The lives of two families, the rich, titled Bellasis family and the nouveau riche Trenchards are brought together at the Duchess of Richmond’s ball and the effects are felt down the years. It is available in ebook format, as an audiobook and as an app. I believe a hard copy of the entire story will be released on July 5th. As an aside, isn’t that a gorgeous cover? What I liked The serialisation. Fellowes made the decision to release his story in instalments, with one chapter each week in the style of Charles Dickens or Alexandre Dumas. Usually the chapters would end on a cliffhanger to encourage you to come back the following week. I thought it was a really interesting idea, even if I didn’t follow it in practice. Although one chapter hit my Audible download queue as regularly as clockwork each Thursday, I actually ended up listening to it in a couple of marathon sessions. As with most Audible pre-orders it hit my queue at…
Having watched some excellent quality drama recently I decided to review what they had in common. First of all, it would probably help if I gave examples of what I consider quality television. It includes, but is not limited to: the Sci-Fi Channel's reimagined Battlestar Galactica, ABC's Lost, HBO's highly acclaimed production of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones, and the UK's ITV channel Downton Abbey. At first glance, these may not seem to have much in common. What connection could there possibly be between a futuristic sci-fi drama, a time-travel mystery, a swords and sorcery fantasy series and a period piece set in early 20th century England? The answer, dear reader, is characters, people in whom we have a vested interest, portrayed by competent actors. We may not necessarily like the characters, but we do have to want to know what happens to them. It is not even a case of identifying with the characters. I have never been stranded on a mystery island with a Smoke Monster, nor survived a robotic genocidal attack. However, at the core of all of these shows is human interacting with human, humans dealing with situations outside their comfort zone, humans dealing…