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Mercury Pictures Presents/Anthony Marra

I was disappointed by this book, which promised to be about a B-movie Hollywood studio in the late 1930s and early 1940s, a subject of great interest to me. In fact, but it was more about a film executive Maria Lagana, whose father – a Roman human rights lawyer – was exiled by [...]

August 17, 2022 // 0 Comments

Tales of the Unexpected/Genesis and the Catastrophe

Readers will recall my enjoyment of this series re-run on Sky Arts. They last 30 minutes, normally feature a well-known actor (Rod Taylor featured in the one immediately prior to this) and directors like the playwright Ronald Harwood. I enjoy trying to guess the twist. This episode had me totally [...]

August 16, 2022 // 0 Comments

Sleep

In the week I watched a programme presented by Michael Mosley on sleep. He underwent various tests by a research team in Oxford University on his  mental state during the various stages of sleep. One of the team made the extraordinary assertion – which went unchallenged – that poor [...]

August 13, 2022 // 0 Comments

Ancestry: A Novel/Simon Mawer

Since publication of The Glass Room, a novel based less on people than a modernist villa in Czechoslovakia, Simon Mawer has had a loyal readership. In his latest Ancestry he recounts the stories of Abraham Block, who goes to sea from the Suffolk village of Kessingland, and Corporal George Mawer [...]

August 10, 2022 // 0 Comments

adieu Bob Rafelson

I was saddened to learn of the death of Bob Rafelson. His movie career as a director was probably more down than up but he can lay claim to be the originator of the Indie in Easy Rider and making the career of one of its then unknown stars, Jack Nicholson. My favourite Rafelson film was Five Easy [...]

August 4, 2022 // 0 Comments

Reflections – Women’s Euros 2022, the Final

Yesterday, from approximately 4.20pm until its conclusion – joining millions of other Brits and television viewers all around the world – I watched the build-up and then the dramas of England’s epic 2-1 (after extra time) victory over Germany in the Final of the women’s Euros 2022 [...]

August 1, 2022 // 0 Comments

An Army at Dawn/The Day of Battle – Rick Atkinson

Army at Dawn and Day of Battle are the first two parts of the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson which chronicle the American entrance and input in the Second World War. The first covers the Torch landings (1942) in North Africa, the second the Sicily and Mainland Italian campaign (1943-44). [...]

July 29, 2022 // 0 Comments

Recent television: Das Boot, Murder in Provence

Das Boot Last Friday saw the final programme in the third series of this Anglo-German production inspired by the excellent film made in the 90s. It’s sympathies very much lay with the boat and its team. In the penultimate episode the Royal Navy captain Swinburne who pursues the U boat with a Moby [...]

July 26, 2022 // 0 Comments

Edinburgh Museums: National Gallery/Portrait Gallery

It’s a difficult question for a national museum as to whether it should showcase national art or collect masterpieces from beyond the borders. The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, whilst showing its Turners, was weighted towards Italian Renaissance and French Art. The northern renaissance [...]

July 24, 2022 // 0 Comments

Gleneagles Hotel

Bob Tickler had it right. After the student accommodation, the Rust Group felt they were entitled to some pampering and where better to get it than the Gleneagles Hotel? It’s the place where the Gleneagles Agreement – effectively banning apartheid South Africa from sport – was [...]

July 23, 2022 // 0 Comments

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