Category Archives: books films arts etc

Another re-read.  Zadie Smith’s achieve­ment in White Teeth, pub­lished when she was only 25, is quite aston­ish­ing.  I remem­ber the vigour, the humour, the won­der­fully eccent­ric cast from first read­ing 11 years ago: the Cain and Abel broth­ers (who are really … Con­tinue read­ing →

Polanski’s film of the true-life story of a Pol­ish Jew­ish pian­ist, incar­cer­ated in the Warsaw ghetto and saved by a mix­ture of luck, arbit­rary kind­nesses, and heroic actions by local Poles, is almost unre­mit­tingly dark in tone (as you would … Con­tinue read­ing →

One might almost be put off a book called “In Search of Eng­land” which adds, on the front cover “Glor­i­ously Uplift­ing: Daily Mail”. How­ever, as the author is Roy Hat­ters­ley, it seemed unlikely that there would be much in the way … Con­tinue read­ing →

Radio 4 is doing A.S. Byattt’s “Pos­ses­sion” over 3 weeks in dram­at­ised 15-minute seg­ments. It’s pretty good, and cap­tures the story-line of the ori­ginal very well.  I can see why the adaptor has provided a sort 0f frame of Roland … Con­tinue read­ing →

Michael Hildred’s poetry book “Late Flower­ing”, illus­trated by the author, ranges more or less chro­no­lo­gic­ally through his life exper­i­ences, from child­hood in Selby dur­ing the war to liv­ing, still in York­shire, in the 21^st cen­tury.  I’m famil­iar with Michael’s dra­matic … Con­tinue read­ing →

V.S. Naipaul’s “A Bend in the River” was first pub­lished in 1979 and I must have first read it soon after it came out in Pen­guin in 1980.  It’s a tale of post-colonial Africa, set some­where deep in the interior … Con­tinue read­ing →

It’s a cosy little exhib­i­tion at the Fitzwil­liam, and free !!   What it does, rather than show off lots of Vermeer’s paint­ings of women (there are a few) is set Ver­meer in con­text, his por­traits in con­text, the detail … Con­tinue read­ing →

I know, implaus­ible isn’t it ?  But Matt Haig’s out­wardly respect­able sub­urban fam­ily, the Rad­leys, in the book of the same name, are the real thing.  I’ve never read a vam­pire novel before, so I’ve no idea if this is … Con­tinue read­ing →