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London Film Festival 2019 pt 1
This was my first real go at London Film festival. Last year I was not organised and only got to see Susperia, this year I’d sorted out a spreadsheet with options and a budget. Without further ado here are the films that I would heartily recommend. Our Ladies, which is a film adaptation of a novel called the Sopranos. It was about young women who were part of a catholic girls school choir and their trip to Edinburgh to take part in a competition. Really it was about the relationships between the girls and how at 16 you are on the cusp of everything or we are all lead to…
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Review: I Still Dream by James Smythe
This novel is incredible. No, I mean it this novel blew me away. I am a sucker for books that hit me where I live and James Smythe grabbed me within that first chapter and just refused to let me go. Laura Bow is the protagonist, we meet her at age 16 in 1997. The internet is in its infancy and Laura has to sneak on the dial-up. This was felt so real it could have been me twenty-odd years ago. The novel is about AI Laura is a teenager who yearns to have someone to open up to, her absent father was a programmer and Laura cobbles together a programme…
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Review: The Fairy’s Tale by F D Lee
This a novel with a lot of heart, a good dollop of humour, a sprinkling of politics and an anti-establishment message and it really did me good to read something that didn’t take itself too seriously. Bea is a cabbage fairy, but a cabbage fairy with ambition. She wants to be a Fairy Godmother but this is not the land of fairy tales that we grew up with. There’s a sinister organisation that controls the stories and the denizens of Fairyland are being repressed. The threat of redaction hangs heavy over everyone. This is a wonderfully subversive look at Fairy Tales and it questions the notions of free will, true…
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Review: Witchsign by Den Patrick
This is a powerhouse of an opening to a trilogy. It has everything that I look for in a novel. An Empire that is corrupt and that seeks to illuminate those who are different. It feels so very relevant at the moment with a lot of countries becoming more inward-looking and exclusionary not least the UK and it’s a picture of what life could be like and indeed has been like for those who are do stand out. Steiner is a good lad, he works in the Smithy with his father and he fancies the innkeeper’s daughter. He’s probably dyslexic and he feels like he’s being judged most of the…
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Selecting Next Reads
Selecting books to read, how do you do it? My pile of unread books teeters in various places around the very small London house in which we live. My partner sighs with exasperation at me and not a little fondness as I amass more books than I can get through. I absolutely have the intention to read them, but I never have the time to get through as many as I think I should. There are also many books languishing on my kindle that I need to read too. This can lead to me being overwhelmed by choice when I finish a book. I need to know what I should…
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Review: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
Trail of Lightning defies being neatly boxed into one genre. Its post-apocalyptic urban fantasy and is written by a Native American about Navajo characters and concepts. This was new ground for me as a reader and whilst I’ve read a lot of Urban Fantasy set in the US the vast majority has been written by caucasian writers and The Sixth World feels fresh and different. The world-building is superlative, evocative and immediate and a reason why we need more own voices out there for readers to engage with. The main characters are drawn well and are both compelling and flawed. Maggie is a tracker and a Dinetah monster hunter trained…
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Monty Python Season
The BFI Southbank has been running a Monty Python at 50 season and last weekend it reached its climax. My partner and I headed to see Monty Python and the Holy Grail and a preview of Terry Gilliam’s new film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Monty Python’s Holy Grail was my first Python film. I loved it, and there was a time where I could quote most of it without thinking about it. Seeing on the big screen with an audience made up of fans was glorious. It wasn’t quite levels of quoting along but the laughs from all around the auditorium was heartwarming and felt special. We were…
