"The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again"

During half term, we spent a long weekend in England's very own garden; Kent. More precisely, we spent a long weekend in historic Rochester, the place which inspired much of the work of Charles Dickens. It is a very pretty little town, quaint tea shops, antique shops, the beautiful cathedral, not to mention the fabulous Rochester castle, parts of which were built in 1127!!!

For a change, we stayed in a hotel; thought we'd take a break from cooking, washing up and so on. As nice as it was, there is always (like, always), an element of Fawlty Towers whenever we stay in anything other than self-catering accommodation, but I will spare you the long-winded rant for once (this time, at any rate!)

It just so happened that I finished reading a book while we were there and, being the kind of person that likes quirky coinicidences, I thought I'd mention it. The book is called Coram Boy and was written in 2000 by Jamila Gavin.

The blurb on the back of the book starts with the sentence, "A tale of two cities ..." I liked the fact that I happened to be finishing this book (with this wording), while we just happened to be in Dickens country.

Geddit?

Tale of Two Cities?

Ok, ok, forget the coincidence - go and get a copy of this book, tomorrow!

I took the book from the school library and it is clearly aimed at the younger reader but I think this is a book for the young in the same way that The Simpsons cartoon is for kids - yes, they may enjoy it, but there's heaps of underlying meaning which (I feel) would be lost on many.

Although The Alchemist will forever remain my favourite book (partly because of it's simplicity), Coram Boy has to be one of the best books I have read to date.



Ever.