I'd rather have read that script than flown through Hitler's legs

Thanks to espresso_addict for this link. Le Guin on the disastrous Earthsea miniseries... Butbutbutbutbut! She once did a script of the first two books with Michael Powell... OMG!!!11!!!

In some blessed alternate universe, that film exists. Excuse me while I play bits of it in my head...

[Cue dreamcasting session]

Purple, white, green

Yesterday marked the anniversary of the first UK general election in which women were able to vote (14th December 1918).

Earlier in the year, the Representation of the People Act had been passed giving votes to women, provided they were aged over thirty and either they, or their husband, met a property qualification. (I would not be able to vote under these provisions. That would not happen until the 1928 Equal Franchise Act, which gave women equal voting rights with men.)

Also in 1918, the Parliamentary Qualification of Women Act was passed, enabling women to stand as Members of Parliament. We usually hear that Nancy Astor was the 'first woman to take her seat in Parliament'. The first female Member of Parliament was in fact Countess Constance Markievicz, who won St Patrick's Ward in Dublin for Sinn Fein in the December 1918 election. Like other Sinn Fein MPs, she refused to take her seat since she would not swear an oath of allegiance to the King. Constance Markievicz was also the first woman to hold a Cabinet position in a European government. Nancy Astor won a by-election in Plymouth for the Conservatives in December 1919.

Earthsea fanfic

For those wishing to get rid of the taste of the miniseries, a new community for fanfiction based on the Earthsea books has been set up: earthsea_fic.

An Earthsea ficathon is just starting up.