Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I wrote the 20th installment in my series to help us understand Brexit. I didn’t have time to keep up with news this week. As I’m writing this on Tuesday, everything still looks stuck, but maybe there will be an election date by the time this posts on Friday.

Jean reviewed Such a Strange Lady: a Biography of Dorothy L. Sayers by Janet Hitchman and shared some of the reasons that Dorothy L. Sayers came across as an odd duck to her friends and colleagues.

Heather provided a timely review of Christmas at Pennington’s by Rachel Brimble.

Flowers, books, and eccentric Brits. What’s not to love?

This Beautiful Fantastic is a film about quirky characters played by actors we know and love from British TV:

• Jessica Brown Findlay (Lady Sybil from Downton Abbey) works at a library and keeps her apartment obsessively neat.
• Tom Wilkinson (too many shows and films to name) is her crotchety next door neighbor.
• Andrew Scott (Jim Morirarty in Sherlock) is the neighbor’s paid companion and cook.
• Jeremy Irvine (Pip in Great Expectations) is an inventor who researches at the library.

If you’re in the mood for finding flaws, you won’t have any trouble searching them out in this film. If you’re in the mood for something sweet and a little magical, though, this film will do the trick, in spite of the flaws.

I enjoyed the books, the garden, and the fun inventions. Have you seen this movie? Did you find things to enjoy?