h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello people, havent been on h2g2 for simply aaaaaages dahlinks, but its the only place i could think of where someone might be able to help me.
My work colleagues and I were chatting about favourite books we had read as children, and I told them about a book I had read when I was about 9 or 10. This would be about 1987/88. I cannot remember the title of the book for the love of God, but it was about a family of witches most of which weren't particularly nice, save the main character Belladonna. I know you might think I'm getting confused with Bellatrix, but its the other way round! Whenever I read Bellatrix in Harry Potter, I read it as Belladonna! Its driving me nuts!
I'm quite aware that the book is more than likely to be out of print, but I would love to try and track it down- I just need the title. Does anyone out there remember a simalar book? Its not the Worst Witch books- the main character was Mildred Hubble. Thanks bookworms!!

I did a quick Google and came up with "Which Witch?" by Eva Ibbotson. According to a certain website named after a big river, it was published in 1979, so it will have been around when you were a kid. Eva Ibbotson seems to have written a number of books about witches, wizards, ghosts, etc.

Hope this helps.

Ta, Cheerful! Will take a look-see.

I finished reading the Hoff's autobiography.

The things I do for you folks!

Well, I can report that it very nearly made my eyes bleed. And I'm glad I never have to read it again.

Currently reading Killing Floor by Lee Child. So far so good - although it is in the first person which I don't particularly like - it seems well written and it's a murder/thriller.

I also started The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing. I read some short stories of hers yonks and yonks ago - but this is like wading through treacle.

Hmm. I rather like it. You should maybe try her 'The Grass Is Singing' or 'The Good Terrorist' instead.

I am currently reading 'The Real Frank Zappa Book' again. It's like an old friend.

*note to self: don't bother with the Hoff*

Thanks for saving me from bleeding eyeballs, Sho.

I'm currently reading bits of The Decameron while awaiting arrival of my copy of "Cold Comfort Farm". It sounds like it will be really funny.

Ed, I'm going to give The Golden Notebook about 2 hours of my undivided attention, to really get into it - that usually does the trick.

And... I'll be starting The Hobbit as soon as I've finished my thriller. Then I'll be walzing through Lord of the Rings and The Silmarallion - should be finished just in time for my shiny new copy of The Children of Hurin to arrive.

As for The Hoff - well it depends what you want to know about him I guess

I liked Children of Hurin! I've been thinking I might re-read Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit again soon; a few years ago, I received lovely leather-bound editions for Christmas.

I need new ones, my LOTR is falling apart but... I love it. I can't just cast it aside and get a new one. Pathetic, eh?

Does anyone else hate it when a book you've read comes out as a film, and then it's got bloody actors plastered all over the new front cover?

Or is it just me?

I just bought Master & Commander' online, and it shows up with Russell bloomin' Crowe on the front. It's annoying!

oh tell me how you like that. It's my "bedtime going to sleep" book but the naval terminology is confusing me. I'm obviously too lubberly for it and should stick to Hornblower.

I do hate that. Do they not have different editions you could have chosen from?

I hate that, too. My copy of "The Motorcycle Diaries" has Gael García Bernal's face on the cover. And I'm pretty sure we have a few more books with that "problem".

Any day now, I expect to see a Bible with a bearded Mel Gibson on the cover.

I don't generally have a problem with that (the idea in general I mean - I would object to a Gibson-endorsed edition of Holy Writ), but it seems like Motorcycle Diaries should have yer actual Che on it.

I notice the new edition of Northern Lights has "Filmed as The Golden Compass" taking pride of place with the actual title relegated to a smaller font in a dull colour at the top: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Northern-Lights-Golden-Compass-Materials/dp/1407104055/ref=pd_bbs_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201454722&sr=8-10

Anyhow, I'm approaching halfway through Ben-Hur, which does not have Charlton Heston on the cover, and it's now well into the filmed bit - the beginning of the novel was given over to an account of the birth of Christ, which was rather more long-winded than the one Saint Matthew wrote. Long-windedness is the books big problem, but I think it's worth persevering. I must be somewhere near the chariot race by now.

Regarding books with pictures of actors, I chose my original copy of Shogun because it *didn't* have a picture of the actors on the back. More than twenty years on, copies of Shogun still had the actors on the back, up till the time they changed the cover illustration. I think the actors have gone now.

When I bought a set of 10 Patrick O'Brian books, none of them had Russell Crowe on the front. I'm so pleased about that. I don't mind so much if I enjoyed the film/TV adaptation - my Hornblower omnibus has Ioan Gruffydd on the front cover, Bleak House has the actors from the latest adaptation 'cos of when mum-in-law bought her copy. It's the publishers cashing in on a successful film or series I don't like. I've seen Patrick O'Brian books other than 'Far Side of the World' with Russell Crowe on the front. And when they're still cashing in, years after the event...

Almost forgot to post the book I've just started reading. It's Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III by Flora Fraser.

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So did I - but it's certainly grim and miserable... I re-read the Hobbit last year, it's surprisingly good, given it's for children.

Vicky

- it's certainly grim and miserable.-

I wonder what tone Tolkien's books would have taken if Prozac had been invented earlier. When we think of mind-altering drugs, we usually think of the recreational ones but the ones that doctor prescribes may have more impact on the way we think.