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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…
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The Resurrectionist of Caligo by Wendy Trimboli & Alicia Zaloga
This debut novel collaboration started life as a letter-writing exercise between two friends who assumed the characters that we find in the novel and what grew out of this pastime. Roger is a struggling student of surgery being somewhat disgraced and most certainly impoverished he has turned to graverobbing to fund his surgical studies. His childhood sweetheart is Sybilla princess of the Royal family and well out of his league. The world that the authors have created feels like a romanticised Dickensian London with added magic and intrigue and as it so happens right up my alley as a reader. The kingdom has fairy magic which makes for some inventive…
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Review: Big
The Dominion Theatre is a massive space, it is one of the largest auditoriums in London and it is currently home to Big which has a limited run there starring Jay McGuinness in the Tom Hanks role alongside Kimberley Walsh from Girls Aloud, Matthew Kelly from Stars in Their Eyes and Wendi Peters from Corrie. I saw it on Monday in previews and was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting something more akin to a jukebox musical so was happy when I saw that it was a score with original songs. The set is beautiful evoking the suburbs where Josh lives, the city of New York as well as specific interior…
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Book Club Reads: The Anubis Gates Tim Powers
This what not a great read for me. It was originally published in 1983 and I felt it hasn’t aged well. Brendan Doyle is the protagonist but I couldn’t like the character at all. A Gary Stu a male wish fulfilment character who yes had a lot of crap thrown at him but also bounces back implausibly to everything. It felt like it relied on racial stereotypes and this made me uncomfortable as a reader. I understand that this was published over 35 years ago but the portrayal of ‘gypsies’ really wasn’t great. There was a grand total of one female character of any importance and she was underserved particularly…
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Fleabag
I am a lucky cow sometimes. I entered the lottery for day tickets to go and see Phoebe Waller-Bridge in her sold-out run at Wyndhams Theatre and I only went and 'won' the chance to buy a pair of tickets at £15. It gets better, I got to the theatre to pick them up and the seats were row A in the stalls pretty much the middle of the front row. So yeah I'm a lucky cow.
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Girls and Aliens
This was quite the collection, five contrasting stories that featured girls and aliens in often very dark and disturbing ways.
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Torch Song
It feels like forever since I went to see a play. I mean it isn’t, but it has felt so much longer. Torch Song has just opened at the brand new theatre space Turbine Theatre at Battersea – yes next to the power station. Torch Song is by Harvey Fierstein and it follows the life of Arnold – drag queen his adventures in love in three parts. (International Stud, A Fugue in the Nursery and Widows and Children First) We saw the cut-down version which ran for 2hr 40 minutes the original version ran for four hours. This is the first production in this new space the auditorium holds…
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Dark Crystal Age of Resistance
So Thursday this week I was lucky enough to go to the European Premiere of the first episode of the new Dark Crystal Series which is going live on Netflix this coming week on 30th August. The episode is fantastic. I can’t wait to watch the rest of the series. The world felt so immersive and real. The characters too are just stunning. I loved every second. One of the exciting things that has come out of this is that there is an exhibition of the world of Thra at the BFI Southbank and my partner Phil and I were fortunate enough to be some of the first people to…
