Archive Entries for October 2018
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Wednesday October 31, 2018
Books in October
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Shetland: Thin Air, Cold Earth, and, Wild Fire
by Ann Cleeves
Having consumed the first 5 books all in one month, I felt it was time to complete the set with the final 3. I really enjoyed them and was highly satisfied with the way Ann chose to end the series. I think the plot of Wild Fire was slightly disappointing, but the thing we were most anxious about was what would happen with Perez and his personal life rather than the detection (I mean I was).
It seems they have decided to carry on with another TV series of Shetland (commissioning 2 more series), a decision which had the Cleeves clan (and me) cheering. *
* For obvious reasons the filming has been long delayed and is due to start March 2021.
- Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble by Catriona McPherson
It's midsummer 1934 and Dandy is invited to some friends' family seat (castle) where they are planning a performance of Macbeth, suited to the somewhat gothic Scottish environment. They plan to fill the place with rich American tourists in order to revive their failing fortunes. Of course there is a mystery (a pretty good one) involving long lost jewels and a family curse.
I love these books.
The book blurbs say: for fans of PG Wodehouse, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie. So I guess that pretty well covers me.
Posted on October 31, 2018 at 12:43 AM. Category: Books of the Month.
Tuesday October 30, 2018
A Waterstones Conversation
An evening out with Michael Connelly and Mark Billingham - the perfect combination - courtesy of Waterstones. Michael proved a most entertaining raconteur - whether talking about inspiration for his writing or his involvement with producing the Bosch TV series. I did notice, though, that most of the audience were people "of a certain age". Whether that's the generation interested in crime novels, or just those who have grown alongside the author.
Posted on October 30, 2018 at 8:40 AM. Category: Days Out.
Friday October 26, 2018
A Very Very Dark Matter
This play is a distinctly bizarre satire, designed to offend - and it did offend - though not me. I found it very very funny, not to mention dark. But I thought that there was no doubt of it's wholly undisguised points about "great writers", swiftly extended to include any people put on pedestals as historically great figures ("national treasures" "fathers of the nation" etc). Since the literal depiction of Dickens and Hans Christian Anderson (and the source of his stories suggested in this play) were so preposterous as to be laughable, I could not see it as offensive. Thus the critics surprised me by receiving it fairly poorly - perhaps they could not forgive the nature of the exposure.
Johnetta Eula'Mae Ackles as Marjory was astonishingly good even without considering this was her stage debut - and Jim Broadbent as Hans Christian Andersen, and Phil Daniels* as Charles Dickens, are, of course as always, brilliant. [*maybe with the exception of his part in Dr Jekyll and My Hyde!].
This review in the Guardian expresses my thoughts much more clearly (since it's written by a journalist...).
[In the light of later events, this play seems a weird foretelling of the "black lives matter" campaigning of the following years even to the referencing of historically inappropriate statues: ...throughout history, certain voices have gone unheard and the past forgotten so that statues were erected to the author of Belgian brutality, Leopold II...]
Posted on October 26, 2018 at 11:46 PM. Category: Days Out.
