A night out with Walter!

Advantages: great place to eat
Disadvantages: slow service

...The Walter Arms is a local pub and restaurant just close to where I live. You can find it on Bearwood Road, between Barkham and Sindlesham on the outskirts of Wokingham. It has recently undergone a substantial refurbishment so when I visited recently I was interested to see if and how it had changed. It is now described as a pub and restaurant with a hint of the mediterranean! The pub used to have quite a cluttered old fashioned feel to it but that has all changed now. When you first go in you notice a light, airy modern feel although they have still retained a real fire which on a cold February night was very welcoming. The last time I visited was on a Friday night a couple of weeks ago with a group of girlfriends for a meal and a natter. As we were there a bit early we stood in the bar area and had a drink first but we could have gone...

kingfisher111 03.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Walter Arms, Sindlesham

FREE DVDs

Advantages: Free trial, large choice, post included,new realeases
Disadvantages: see review

...I like movies and I like freebies, so when you get offered both in one swoop you?re bound to accept! I used my two week free trial with this company and remained with them for a couple of monthsbefore moving on to try many other companies free trials (and winning a new DVD player on Tesco DVD rental site on their free trial offer). I then had an email from DVDs 365 asking me to go back, and offering me a free DVD if I did so. I had just left Tesco (with my new DVD player) so I chose to go back with them. ∆◊◊ THE SERVICE THEY OFFER ∆◊◊ Basically it?s like going to a video shop and hiring films on DVD, except you don?t pay for each film you chose ? rather a monthly fee for which you can watch as many movies as you can fit in, for us this is usually around 8 a month (2 a week usually weekends...

dabmim 15.11.2004 · Read review
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Review of dvds365.com

Surprising Picture Quality - Panasonic DVD-S54

Advantages: Incredible picture quality when compared to my old non-upscaling player with a scart lead
Disadvantages: Sometimes disc drive can be really noisy when DVD's initially load.

...At first I wasn't convinced by up-scaling DVD player technology but was persuaded after reading an article in "What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision" magazine. Unable to afford a Blu-Ray player my sister and I bought the Panasonic DVD-S54 to match our parents brand new Panasonic TX-32LZD80 LCD television as their Christmas 2008 present. Admittedly it was a slightly selfish purchase as we both live at home and wanted to watch DVDs on the big new TV ourselves! We bought the player from the electrical retailer Comet for about £100 just before Christmas so there were no discounts applied. On Christmas day when opened we found a relatively small box tightly packed with the player in polystyrene packaging. All the components such as cables, remote and manuals were well presented in their own protective plastic bags, to keep them protected. The player...

bobbacon985 12.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Panasonic DVD-S54

Walters reigns supreme

Advantages: Gripping, complex and intelligent
Disadvantages: Disturbing

...No other crime/psychological thriller writer understands the human psyche and its social constraints better than Minette Walters. Her latest novel, The Shape of Snakes, centres around the death of a reclusive black woman who sufered from Tourette's Syndrome and was thus ostracised by her adult neighbours and tormented beyond measure by the local children. Convinced that the victim was murdered, not knocked down by a van as the police and coroner concluded, neighbour Mrs Ranelagh seeks justice and has a nervous breakdown in the process as she is disbelieved by the police and abused and assaulted by her neighbours. Mrs Ranelagh then leaves the country with her husband, but never forgets victim Annie and continues to research the case from afar. Returning to England 21 years later, Mrs Ranelagh once again seeks justice...

sandrabarber 24.01.2001 · Read review
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Review of The Shape of Snakes - Minette Walters

Walters is One Foxy Writer

Advantages: gripping, well written
Disadvantages: none

...After the major disappointment of Acid Row, I swore I?d given up on Minette Walters. I considered that novel so beneath her talents that I was determined not to let her let me down again. However, after assurances from my mum that Walters was well and truly back on form, I got myself a copy of her latest paperback, Fox Evil, settled down with a coffee and found myself instantly hooked. The Plot: Nancy Smith, the adopted daughter of gentrified country parents, receives a visit from a solicitor informing her that her natural grandfather wants to get in touch. Happy as she is, she refuses point blank. Then she receives a letter from her grandfather which makes it clear that her natural family is beset by secrets, shame and tragedy. She is intrigued. James Lockyer-Fox, Nancy?s grandfather and a retired army colonel, lives...

sandrabarber 24.10.2003 · Read review
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Review of Fox Evil - Minette Walters

Can't wait for more Walters ...

Advantages: Additive reading written in a great style
Disadvantages: May seem gory at first glance

...This was my first Minette Walters book and the author came as a recommendation from a friend. I'm the type of person who usually only reads on holiday, but this book has given me fresh impetus to read at home. The brief synopsis had me thinking this was going to be crime/thriller and quite gory, but it was about the same level as Ian Rankin or Peter Robinson. I suppose I'd class it as a crime/mystery type of book. I read the book in 2 days (quite a record for me). Brief Story Overview: The story centres around Olive Martin and Rozalind Leigh: Olive is captive in prison after admitting killing her mother and sister, Rozalind (an author with writer's block) has been given the task of writing her story by her agent. As the facts of Olive's case are brought into question by Roz, the two develop a relationship. Olive is not forth...

philj1875 19.03.2004 · Read review
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Review of The Sculptress - Minette Walters

Walter Whale

Advantages: Different textures
Disadvantages: surface wash only

......

sarah.shipley 13.02.2001 (12.02.2001) · Read review
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Review of Mamas & Papas Walter Whale

Caine and Walters give a good show

Advantages: Plot, lead actors
Disadvantages: Drags a little in places

...Willy Russell is well known as a playwright. He has written many a script for the stage, one of these being Educating Rita. In 1983, director Lewis Gilbert took Russell's play and adapted it for the big screen, making it into a feature film and drawing in top actor Michael Caine. It was also Julie Walters' first major feature film. The script was originally intended for the stage, and was thus just a dialogue, taking place entirely in an office. For the screen, it was amended and several locations were used to make it more appealing. This included the addition of a number of extra characters who are merely spoken about in the original play. The plot, however, does not really change. Essentially, it is the tale of a young working class woman, Rita (Julie Walters) who embarks on an Open University course to study literature. She...

pmcds 18.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of Educating Rita (DVD)

YAMAHA DVD-S 557 this is THE DVD player of all time.

Advantages: Brilliant DVD player, perfect quality
Disadvantages: cant think of any

......

plainpaul 22.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Yamaha DVD-S 557

Vikings, pirates, adventures and mystery all in one book.

Advantages: A really good old book - a forgotten classic
Disadvantages: Quite a long book at 522 pages

... THE PIRATE SIR WALTER SCOTT ?THAT long, narrow, and irregular island, usually called the Mainland of Zetland, because it is by far the largest of that Archipelago, terminates, as is well known to the mariners who navigate the stormy seas which surround the Thule of the ancients, in a cliff of immense height, entitled Sumburgh-Head, which presents its bare scalp and naked sides to the weight of a tremendous surge, forming the extreme point of the isle to the south-east.? The work of the prolific Scottish writer, Sir Walter Scott, is sadly no longer thought of as fashionable to read. Ask people what he wrote, and the most popular answer I am sure would be ?Ivanhoe?, ?Rob Roy? or perhaps ?The Lady of the Lake?. ?Ivanhoe?, like ?Rob Roy? were part of Scott?s Waverley Novels as was one...

oldchem 13.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Pirate - Sir Walter Scott