Video: Cold Comfort Farm

"In England in the early 1930's, 20 year old Flora Poste, recently orphaned and left with only 100 pounds a year, goes to stay with distant relatives on Cold Comfort Farm. Everyone on the gloomy farm is completely around the twist, but Flora tries to sort everything out...

This is yet another great adaptation of a great book - and it's so delightfully funny and cleverly-written. Kate (Beckwith) is so lovely in her role as Flora. Her appearance as a penniless heroine reminded me of Emma Woodhouse and Northanger Abbey. Don't miss the hilarity-driven performances by respected actors like Ian McKellen, Eileen Atkins, Rufus Sewell, Stephen Fry, and Rupert Penry-Jones"

Wikipedia

A lovely review of the book is here

Cold Comfort Farm is listed amongst the best books at the Gutenberg Project

Read the book online here

BBC: Lorna Doone

Now we can enjoy the romance of Exmoor online...

"The BBC dished up Lorna Doone as its classic costume drama for Christmas 2000 and served its source material well. R. D. Blackmore's novel of dangerous times and inter-clan warfare on Exmoor during the time of the Monmouth Rebellion is highly romantic. At its centre is the ongoing war between John Ridd (Richard Coyle), the yeoman with a noble heart, and Carver Doone, the reckless young leader of the outlawed family who murdered Ridd's father. Aside from their familial enmity, they are also rival suitors for the hand of the eponymous heroine (a spirited performance from Amelia Warner). The production avoids overkill on the swashbuckling front: the battle scenes are grim and bloody; Lorna herself is cocooned by her family but the Doone clan lives in a bleak, rough encampment with few comforts. And in Aidan Gillan's Carver, we have an anti-hero of extraordinary charisma, driven and ultimately destroyed by his single-minded determination to make Lorna his wife or see her dead. A stirring evening's viewing which offers the good old-fashioned satisfaction of just desserts all round." --Piers Ford

Read an online illustrated version of the book here.

BBC: A walk in Lorna Doone country - Link

From "If...": Sanctus