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Category Archives: Reading
Scrapper; Not That Radical
Charlotte Regan’s film and Mikaela Loach’s book seem, as so often, rather different kinds of thing, put together here, by, as Sting has it, the sacred geometry of chance. A quirky magic-realist film about a bereaved 12-year-old meeting her hitherto … Continue reading
My Name is Alfred Hitchcock; Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead
{Welcome back double-blog!} Two great pieces to start: seemingly unrelated, but then on closer inspection…
Posted in animal rights, Film, Novel, Stuff
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Merkel; The Great Escaper
Merkel I think this was my first Curzon film watched at home. A pretty straightforward documentary about Merkel’s life and career, broadly uncritical/hagiographic. The Great Escaper A pretty straightforward biopic telling the true story of a D-Day veteran who missed … Continue reading
Posted in Film, History
Tagged Film, glenda-jackson, Iliad, michael-caine, movies, the-great-escaper, World War II
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acqua alta and the abc murders
acqua alta by donna leon there must be few detective stories like this one, with no twist, but it was ok as i recognised some of the places in venice, enjoyed the recent real acqua alta, and the novel ends … Continue reading
Posted in Novel, TV
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a fish called wanda and brief answers to the big questions by stephen hawking
a fish called wanda some great moments, but overall disappointing; (‘sir’) michael palin’s stutter is always a little painful, but it was the (to modern eyes) slow editing which got me – and the sexism – both made it seem … Continue reading
the ape that understood the universe by steve stewart-williams and the dallas buyers guide
the ape that understood the universe by steve stewart-williams long-windedly and irritatingly covers the ground: first Darwinian natural selection of GENES, taking an explicitly and alternately triumphant and apologetic counter-zeitgeist stance that more of human nature is biological, genetic, than … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Reading
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a cuckoo calling (jk rowling) & julia shaw’s the illusion of memory
a cuckoo calling really enjoyable – hard to put down (or a delight to pick up); cormoran strike and robyn are great characters, and the story unwinds and retangles in the manner of the best whodunnits that’s all it is … Continue reading
othello & moby-dick
othello everyone (including me) went to see mark rylance’s iago; for the first scene or so i was confused as he spoke so fast i missed lots of the content but we settled, and really enjoyed rylance’s nervy subservience, running … Continue reading
philosophy for life by rupert read, and bamford quaker community
philosophy for life: a series of essays by the green quaker norwich-based (uea) philosopher, chained together skilfully by editor m.a. lavery, this book is a serious, witty, and unashamedly intellectual attempt to take dame philosophie from her ivory tower and put … Continue reading
rodin and the ancient greeks, & the iliad
rodin and the ancient greeks i didn’t realise that rodin spent a lot of time in london, and that he kept visiting the british museum to see the elgin marbles and other greek sculpture; it seems (at least according to … Continue reading