Belgium!!

[Grumpmeister]

I'm not sure what to make of this, I know that Douglas Adams wanted to write the 6th book when he passed away but can anyone else truely setp into his shoes?

Children's author Eoin Colfer has been commissioned to write a sixth instalment of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series.

Mostly Harmless, the last Hitchhiker book, was written by its creator, the late Douglas Adams, 16 years ago.

Now Adams's widow, Jane Belson, has given her approval to bring back the hapless Arthur Dent in a new book entitled And Another Thing...

Eoin Colfer, 43, is best known for the best-selling Artemis Fowl novels.

He said he was "terrified" by the prospect of creating a new Hitchhiker book almost a quarter of a century after being introduced to what he described as a "slice of satirical genius" in his late teens.

'Pressure'

 
The book also spawned a BBC TV series starring Simon Jones
"My first reaction was semi-outrage that anyone should be allowed to tamper with this incredible series," he said.

"But on reflection I realised that this is a wonderful opportunity to work with characters I have loved since childhood and give them something of my own voice while holding on to the spirit of Douglas Adams.

"I feel more pressure to perform now than I ever have with my own books," he said, adding that he was "determined that this will be the best thing I have ever written".

Jane Belson said: "I am delighted that Eoin Colfer has agreed to continue the Hitchhiker series.

"I love his books and could not think of a better person to transport Arthur, Zaphod and Marvin to pastures new. The project has my full support."

Adams died of heart failure in 2001, aged 49.

Around 16 million copies of his Hitchhiker books, which have been translated into 35 languages, have been sold around the world.

Colfer was a primary school teacher in Ireland before he secured the largest ever advance for a children's novel by an unknown author.

His Artemis Fowl series, about a teenage criminal mastermind who wreaks havoc in this world and the next, went on to sell more than 18 million copies worldwide and a film adaptation is due to go into production next year.

And Another Thing... will be published in October next year.

[Pastis]

Belgium ? 

Tin Tin ... yeeees,

Adolphe Sax ... yeeees,

Trappist beer ... yeeees,

Chips & Mayonnaise ... yeeees,

Anyone?

[Barman]

Belgium ? 

Tin Tin ... yeeees,

Adolphe Sax ... yeeees,

Trappist beer ... yeeees,

Chips & Mayonnaise ... yeeees,

Anyone?

Ieper?

[Pastis]

Meaning, this thread went off topic fractionally after the subject title? 

Is Ieper the same as Ypres?

[Darwins Selection]

Meaning, this thread went off topic fractionally after the subject title? 

Is Ieper the same as Ypres?

Isn't it a disease, as in Ieperosy?

Oh, and I raise you Poirot.

[Snoopy]

Waterloo ~ we won. 

[Pastis]

 

I'll see your Poirot with a Rene Magritte

[Darwins Selection]

I'll see your Poirot with a Rene Magritte

Then I will trump you with some big balls.

[Pastis]

This is madness! 



Mayhem in the markets...

[Snoopy]

My granddad spent four years in Belgium, mainly in a trench. He didn't think much of the place.

[Pastis]

My granddad spent four years in Belgium, mainly in a trench. He didn't think much of the place.

I had an uncle, so the story goes, who lied about his age and joined up never to return. Must have been a kid about 15 or 16 and eldest of the family with five younger sisters of whom my Mum was second youngest. Heeded Kitchener's plea and that was it. A couple of aunts went to see the grave somewhere in Flanders Field and attest to its existence though I've never been. May they RIP.

[Snoopy]

My granddad spent four years in Belgium, mainly in a trench. He didn't think much of the place.

I had an uncle, so the story goes, who lied about his age and joined up never to return. Must have been a kid about 15 or 16 and eldest of the family with five younger sisters of whom my Mum was second youngest. Heeded Kitchener's plea and that was it. A couple of aunts went to see the grave somewhere in Flanders Field and attest to its existence though I've never been. May they RIP.

Granddad (Mum's father) had no reason to go. He had served in the Boer War and was 35 when he left the Merchant Navy to sign on as a Cavalryman. Trouble was that horses were not much good in the mud of Flanders. He did take part in what is reckoned to be one of the last Cavalry Charges ever when they had to clear a copse of Germans in the late Summer of 1918. He stayed on in Belgium with the regiment until April 1919 "Clearing up" and acting as police whilst the Belgians sorted themselves out and all prisoners had been repatriated. His biggest regret was that they had to hand their horses over to the Belgians when they came back to the UK. Like he said "I looked after the poor bloody thing for four years only to feed some idle Belgian b@st@rd"

[Pastis]

I often wonder on the good fortune to have missed active service. I think there's very few generations that have managed it if any, looking back. Whether there'll be as few in the future, I don't know... 

[Barman]

Meaning, this thread went off topic fractionally after the subject title? 

Is Ieper the same as Ypres?

Yes...

It is the most amazing place – completely razed during the war and rebuilt afterwards as it was before…

The In Flanders Fields museum at the old wool hall is fascinating and the ceremony at the Menin gate every evening is incredibly moving.

The fighting was so intense that the farmers around Ieper have an ‘iron crop’ every year of unexploded shells that still come to the surface ninety years after they were fired. Walking around the edges of the fields you can pick up shrapnel, entrenching tools and grenades that are still coming to the surface (although LL wouldn’t let me bring the grenade home).