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Sweet caress/ William Boyd

A friend of mine, an astute book reader, has a theory on the popular William Boyd that he apes very genre of modern writing : his early works set in Africa are redolent of Waugh, Restless of the spy genre, he has even produced a James Bond novel. In Sweet Caress he however returns to a formula he [...]

September 24, 2015 // 0 Comments

The RWC party starts with a bang …

And so the 2015 Rugby World Cup has begun. Given the recent near blanket back-page coverage – someone within the heart of World Rugby and the RFU’s 2015 World Cup organising committee must either be thanking their lucky stars or else receiving due tribute and congratulations for the excellence [...]

September 20, 2015 // 0 Comments

A Rock and Roll hero is something to be …

No apologies from me for being a Rolling Stones fan – when about fifteen years ago I took part in a survey conducted by a family member I picked their 1971 and 1972 albums Sticky Fingers and Exile on Maine Street among my Top Ten all-time favourites – thus any reservations or criticisms [...]

September 18, 2015 // 0 Comments

A Brit doing well in the USA

James Corden – he of improvised comic skills in providing assistance to Comic Relief and ‘live’ presenting of the BBC Sports Review of the Year – is now apparently, after somewhat mixed early reviews – knocking the ball out of the park on his Late Late Show in the [...]

September 16, 2015 // 0 Comments

An Inspector Calls

I have a terrible confession to make: I have never seen a JB Priestley play nor read any of his books nor essays. Whilst reviewing a programme about Churchill’s electoral defeat of 1945, I spoke to Henry Elkins about him. He told me that he was the son of a headmaster from Bradford and [...]

September 16, 2015 // 0 Comments

ITV IN THE SEVENTIES

Sporting Rusters often advocate the seventies as the Golden Age of sports commentary so here I make the claim that it was equally a peerless epoch for tv serial dramas. I chanced upon The Professionals rather by fluke a few months ago. Now it’s a rare day when I do not watch one episode on [...]

September 9, 2015 // 0 Comments

Back where it all began

Last night, after my first visit to the gym for about a month, I settled down to make my evening ‘TV dinner’ meal and watch my recording of Up On Cyprus Avenue [originally transmitted on BBC Four on the evening of Sunday 6th September], which had been billed as the highlights of two concerts [...]

September 8, 2015 // 0 Comments

Sue MacGregor and The Reunion

Following on from yesterday ‘s piece by Tom Hollingworth on the relative abilities of female presenters I would like to champion Sue MacGregor, in my opinion the best female broadcaster ever. She cut her teeth on the Today programme. She is so versatile that she presented the book programme A [...]

September 7, 2015 // 0 Comments

The Nick

The Nick is a fly on the wall documentary on Brighton police. The problem, like all fly on the walls, is the filmed never quite behave as naturally as they would otherwise. They are aware of – and in some cases perform to – the camera. I have heard it said that after a while they forget [...]

September 4, 2015 // 0 Comments

The Meursault Investigation / Kamel Daoud

Though largely ignored in British literary circles this first novel by Algerian  journalist Kamel  Daoud has created a sensation in France, won prizes, is a best seller, been translated into 17 languages and the film of it is to be released in 2017. The conceit is the brother of the Arab killed [...]

September 3, 2015 // 0 Comments

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