Made In Chelsea: Traces Of Tolstoy

Anna Karenina update: 

Ladies and gents, I am officially 250 pages in!

Do you know what, it's not even slightly hard work. It's actually fun, and I'm now deliberately taking my time and properly enjoying the characters and Tolstoy's very clever prose. I think this definitely makes up for all those Susan Lewis books.

OK, so now I've got you thinking I'm all high-brow, I'm going to go and ruin it by telling you that this book is the perfect complement to the new series of Made In Chelsea. REALLY.

I can't tell you how much I love this programme, it's actually embarrassing. I've never really got into any of the other drama/reality shows like The Hills, and I've lost interest in TOWIE, but MIC has me totally suckered. Sam won't let me watch it when it's on (because it makes him throw things at the telly) so I have to wait for it to come on catch-up TV, and then watch it the second he leaves the house on Tuesday morning. Last week it didn't pop up for ages and I was BESIDE MYSELF. This must be how other people are with gambling/drugs/Emmerdale. I am completely obsessed.

And I love Anna Karenina for all the same reasons I love MIC.  Posh people wafting about without a care in the world other than their own ego, their fabulous lives, and bitching and gossiping about everybody else. Causing scandal for the sake of scandal. It's flimsy and superficial on the surface, but it all boils down to characters and people, which is something I find endlessly fascinating (probably because I'm quite nosey).

Even though I'm still quite early on in the book, I can't help drawing parallels between the characters. Kitty and Cheska have both been let down by men who lead them on. Spencer and Vronsky are similarly foppish socialites who only ever think about their own needs. Loveable, ditzy people-pleaser? Oblonsky/Jamie. And Anna Karenina HAS to be Caggy. I almost wish I'd done my dissertation on this.

And by the way, I don't care if it's real. Any of it. Because it gives me JOY.

Image clearly pinched from Holy Moly/C4

Incidentally, my favourite MIC character is Fredrik, who is sadly lacking this series. Do you think if we got a pet eagle it would eat the cats? Just wondering...