Sharpe as Ever...

First up is a reread of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Company, which tells how Sharpe and Harper, as usual, led the assault on the fortress city of Badajoz. There's a lot of grim in the book. Sharpe's old enemy, Hakeswill, shows up, causing chaos amongst the ranks. Also, it focuses on siege warfare, so the body count may be the highest of any of the books, especially on the British side. Cannister is nasty stuff.

Afterwards, I watched the first four eps of the TV series, starting with Sharpe's Rifles, then Sharpe's Eagle, Sharpe's Company, and Sharpe's Enemy. The adaptations are all good, and Company probably has the closest correspondence to events in the book upon which it's based. It's fun picking out actors who've gone on to other things. Daniel Craig plays a villain in Eagle. Elizabeth Hurley shows up as Sharpe's ex-lover in Enemy. Plus, these are the four episodes with Assumpta Serna as Theresa.

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I also just finished Mort, Pratchett's vision of Death takes a holiday, and it's just terrific. I laughed out loud a lot. And "sodomy non sapiens" may become my new motto.

An hour ago Cutwell had thumbed through the index of The Monster Fun Grimoire and had cautiously assembled a number of common household ingredients and put a match to them.

Funny thing about eyebrows, he mused. You never really noticed them until they'd gone.

There was also this:

When you step off a cliff, your life takes a very definite direction.

which is such an apt description.