BBC to adapt Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Idoru · November 2013

As there's so much interest in Buffy/A Game of Thrones, I'm going to make an assumption that at least some people here have read and enjoyed Susannah Clarke's wonderful Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Well, the BBC is turning it into a series: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell-bbc-one-casting-release.html I've not heard of the two main actors, but as it's a BBC thing I have high hopes. Anyone else going to be watching it?

Peter Crumb · November 2013

Always see Jonathan Strange in charity shops. Top recommendation?

kittygal · November 2013

on Buffy anyone know why Syfy irritatingly jumped from Series 3 to Series 7 on it's reruns?

kreuzkav · November 2013

I'm trying to get the Stroud Green link here.

ChangN4N6 · November 2013

It's going to be filmed here. Chang

miss annie · November 2013

I read it and found it a bit long winded but enjoyable. If you liked it try The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies or for something lighter the Night Circus.

kreuzkav · November 2013

@ Chang. On Lorne road?

ChangN4N6 · November 2013

If only! I cud do with the location fee! It's on the reservoirs . Chang

vetski · November 2013

@kittygal, I don't understand either, but they keep on doing it. Do you have the Horror Channel? They show an ep. of Angel daily, usually straight after Buffy!

kreuzkav · November 2013

Chang distracted me but what is the connection with Stroud Green?

Peter Crumb · November 2013

Take a guess.

Idoru · November 2013

Peter Crumb: I generally hesitate to recommend books as everyone's taste is so different. Like miss annie said it is a bit long winded and sometimes hard going, but I really enjoyed it. I thought it very similar in style to Jane Austen, although a friend of mine thought it an insult to Ms Austen to even mention it in the same sentence. It's set in the 19th century and magic is a real and accepted part of life. If you're on Goodreads, it's here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14201.Jonathan_Strange_Mr_Norrell?from_search=true miss annie: I've got Night Circus on my to-read list, the other one I've not heard of so I'll check it out.

wisteria53 · November 2013

Another recommendation is Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (prefer these to Suzanne Clarke's book Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which I agree is Austenesque in tone), for a mix of detective/police procedural set in modern London (you could navigate by some of the descriptions) and magic - and it would also film well.

miss annie · November 2013

Ben Aaronovitch is an ex Waterstones bookseller and wrote the first book on his lunch breaks! We are proud of him. The audio versions are excellent too. The Deptford Trilogy was written by a slightly odd Canadian Professor who looked like Gandalf. I love his books, they often go off an a tangent leading one to investigate things he mentions. Oh, and I bet you do know one the Norrell & Strange actors - Eddie Marsan is the senior policeman in Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock. My mum & stepdad's surname is Strange, often thought of adopting it.

ADGS · November 2013

It's an insult to Susanna Clarke to mention Jane Austen in the same sentence as her. <div style="font-style: normal;"> </div><div>The worldbuilding in Ben Aaronovitch's novels is first-class, but the plotting (in the first two, at least) is terrible - I worked out the culprit 200 pages ahead of the leads in Rivers and 300 pages in Moon over Soho. That said, he's improved on that front in the two books since. His fellow Doctor Who alumnus Paul Cornell has also started a very good occult London police series with London Falling - but they're an awful lot darker, more outright horror. Still, if you want a local connection in your spooky detective stories, you need China Mieville's Kraken, where the protagonist lives just across Finsbury Park.</div>

nick_m · November 2013

If you read it, my advice would be to skip the footnotes.

ChangN4N6 · November 2013

Except the ones about Stroud Green reservoirs Chang

Idoru · November 2013

Ah, so many new books to read

ADGS · November 2013

But the footnotes are brilliant! One of them even spins off a short story in its own right.

Idoru · November 2013

I started reading CM's Kraken at the weekend. Quarter of the way through and it's brilliant. I'm so in love with China Mieville.

ChangN4N6 · November 2013

The Kraken Wakes is a good one. But avoid the reservoirs. Chang

ADGS · November 2013

I find Mieville's addiction to the deliberate anticlimax as a way of undercutting fantasy cliches slightly wearing, but other than that he's bloody brilliant.

ChangN4N6 · November 2013

Agree totally . Chang

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BBC to adapt Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

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