Six Degrees of Separation; August 2017 - Pride and Prejudice to...

I saw this meme thanks to Janet over at From First Page to Last, one of my favourite book blogs and couldn't resist joining in, I love Six Degrees of Separation games, the literary twist makes it even better! The meme is hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best.

The idea is to take one book - this month the starting book is Pride & Prejudice - then form a chain of six books, each one linked somehow to the one next to it in the chain. How they are linked doesn't matter, it's fascinating to see how different people's #6Degrees can be considering the starting point is the same.

There isn't really anything I can say about Pride and Prejudice that hasn't been said already, beloved by many and the inspiration behind countless adaptations, from straightforward retellings to more fantastical re-imaginings such as the mash-up book and later film, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It's just been announced that Mammoth Productions are developing a new, 'darker' adaptation of the book for ITV.



Mammoth are also making a major new series based on Malorie Blackman's  superb Noughts & Crosses books, YA dystopian fiction set in the 21st century, it's a powerful and thought-provoking alternative history in which the dark-skinned ruling class (Crosses) have the advantages of privilege over the 'colourless' Noughts. Despite the ongoing segregation, Sephy, a Cross and Callum, a Nought begin a romance that will lead them into terrible danger. Highly acclaimed, if you haven't already read the series, I highly recommend it.



Malorie Blackman is a former Children's Laureate, as is Julia Donaldson, beloved author of so many rhyming books for young children, there can't be many parents who haven't read at least one of The Gruffalo, Stick Man, A Squash and a Squeeze or my next choice, Room on the Broom to their children at some time. Room on the Broom features a witch with a cat, a very tall hat and a a long ginger plait  - but just how much room is there in that broom?!



I can't mention brooms of course without including the boy who lived himself; Harry Potter has become synonymous with magic and wizardry, twenty years after the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling still has devoted fans across the world. My favourite of the series is The Order of the Phoenix, which leads me to my next book...



The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit is a magical story about five children, Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and the Lamb who find and hatch an egg into a Phoenix who grants them three wishes a day and enables them to go on many adventures on a flying carpet. It's the second book of a trilogy, coming after Five Children and It and preceding The Story of the Amulet.



E. Nesbit also wrote The Railway Children, many people will fondly recall the 1970 film directed by Lionel Jeffries, starring Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett, Dinah Sheridan and Bernard Cribbins. I can't be the only person with leaky eyes at the plaintive “Oh, my daddy! My daddy!" line near the end of the film.



This leads me to my sixth and final book, featuring probably the best known and most beloved father in fiction, Atticus Finch. Harper Lee's classic book To Kill a Mockingbird is, like Pride and Prejudice, a GCSE staple text and likewise will always appear on various book lists. It's certainly one of my favourites, although it's been far too long since I last read it. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, it was her only book until the publication in 2015 of Go Set a Watchman, written before To Kill a Mockingbird and now widely accepted as a first draft of the more famous novel.



So that's my six books, taking us from Regency England to the Great Depression of the Deep South via magic and adventure. What would your chain look like?

Comments

  1. I love it how your list dipped into Children's Lit. I touched on it for one book. Here is my My 6-Degrees of Separation

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's really interesting seeing how different all the lists are. I'm off to check yours out now!

      Delete
  2. Very clever first link! I didn't know there was a darker version of P&P in the pipeline - I guess they have to try something completely different given that nothing traditional will ever match the glorious BBC production.

    Thanks for joining in and hope you play again next month.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you! It will certainly be interesting seeing how they make it darker.

    I look forward to joining in next month :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment