TOM JONES

"It is widely believed that too much wine dulls the spirit.  And so it will, in a dull man"--Tom Jones

On meeting in 1939: "We saw each other for the first time, drinking bad South African sherry because of the war in Spain.  I noticed Sarah, I think, because she was happy; in those years the sense of happiness had been a long while dying under the coming storm"--End of the Affair

Wednesday night we saw a documentary about the Gallipoli campaign.  It was so grim that Moira couldn't finish it! (It's easy to forget that the Turks lost almost as many men as the British and their allies.) I just found out that the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was sent to Gallipoli before their annihilation at the Somme.

Last night I saw Tony Richardson's Tom Jones yet again, with Debi of the History Meetup.  It's a real scream! Richardson and screenwriter John Osborn's showing the dirt and ugliness of the 18th century--they'd previously made the "kitchen sink" classics Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer--makes the audience appreciate its beauty more! (Didn't Joan Greenwood have fine eyebrows?  When I saw her in The Importance of Being Earnest those were the main thing I remembered about the movie...)

Another vivid dream last night.  It was a story sort of like the Godfather movies, but even more violent.  The main thing I remember is a pack of attack dogs advancing in slow motion, and the gangsters furiously pedalling electric generators to produce a huge surge and explosion!