Category Archives: books films arts etc

A volume of short stor­ies — “Trav­el­ling Light.”  But no one does, or can.  Other people bring you their bag­gage.  Dis­turb­ing and fascinating stuff

The film of Le Carre’s Tinker Tailor… is just won­der­ful — so atmo­spheric — 70s — and rep­lic­ates the novel in that most of the time you are not at all sure what is going on and who is betray­ing … Con­tinue read­ing →

I’ve been catch­ing up on the slim volumes of poetry that are linger­ing on my bed­side table.  Pau­line Kirk’s “Owl­stone” is by no means the most recent of her pub­lic­a­tions, but is a good intro­duc­tion to the work of this … Con­tinue read­ing →

I first came across Rose­mary Sutcliff’s “The Eagle of the Ninth” back in the 50s when it was seri­al­ised on BBC radio’s “Children’s Hour.”  It appealed to me then as a won­der­ful study of loy­alty (though I wouldn’t have put … Con­tinue read­ing →

Mike Kenny’s adapt­a­tion of “Peter Pan” at York Theatre Royal was delight­ful — much aided by the sta­ging in the round (as his pre­vi­ous “Rail­way Chil­dren” and “Wind in the Wil­lows” adapt­a­tions).    I don’t think I ever saw the … Con­tinue read­ing →

I should have pos­ted on this as soon as I saw it — a film set around the expul­sion of Jews from Paris dur­ing WWII, incar­cer­a­tion in the Velo­drome D’Hiver and then in camps out­side Paris.  A little girl hides … Con­tinue read­ing →

First, the pos­it­ive.  Michael Laskey’s poetry book “The Tightrope Wed­ding” — largely domestic ori­ent­ated, but poignant and per­cept­ive about life with oth­ers one(mostly) loves. Dis­ap­poin­ted by Ray­mond Chandler’s short story col­lec­tion “Pick-up on Noon Street”, pos­sibly because I found it … Con­tinue read­ing →

“The Thin Man” dates back to the early 30s.  Dashi­ell Hammett’s style has per­haps dated more than Chand­ler and the style isn’t as crisp and witty.  But the milieu (New York high and low-life) and the tough­ness of the invest­ig­ator … Con­tinue read­ing →