Watching - September 2025

The Hard Way (1991)

Not a film often mentioned in discussions of Michael J. Fox's career, I think, which is a shame because it's good - not a classic, but deserving of being remembered, at least. He's great as a spoiled brat of a film star (having a tantrum about wanting to be treated like an adult is hilarious) and if there are a few too many trademark Fox pratfalls, well, that's what he does. James Woods is also good as the "real" cop - although of course, it makes you start questioning what he did to get the performance right! Recommended  - I ended up buying a secondhand DVD because it cost about the same as renting it on Prime or whatever.

He Said, She Said (1991)

Another film I remembered fondly, having not seen it for a long, long time (and coincidentally, from the same year). The dual perspectives results in a fun format and one that would stand revisiting today - even though there are plenty of things that date the film, not least some of the sexual politics, the core story holds up. Elizabeth Perkins is particularly good, subtlely changing her performance to suit the two perspectives. Rather sweetly, the two halves were directed by a man and a woman respectively, who later married.

The Trip (2010)

Long before David Tennant and Michael Sheen played fictionalised versions of themselves in Staged, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon did the same in The Trip. And if Tennant and Sheen were willing to come across as overgrown children in the name of comedy, then what's perhaps more remarkable here is that Coogan is prepared to portray himself as a vain, touchy, womanising and ultimately somewhat lonely man. Without the distance that a character with a different name gives, that strikes me as quite brave. I'm not sure it makes for particularly good comedy though; the show is easy to admire but hard to love. Worth watching, though.

The King's Speech (2010)

I first watched this at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh with my long-time colleagues Graham and Richard. We all loved it, but I don't remember being as moved by the ending as I am now for some reason. Perhaps I've become more emotional as I've aged, or possibly I'm just a soppy old git now. Still, it's a lovely film.

Cousins (1989)

One of my long-time favourite films. As is often the case, I find myself agreeing with Roger Ebert's spot-on review; this isn't realistic, but it doesn't matter because it's a touching celebration of love, and because Isabella Rossellini conveys such a convincing range of emotions and sweetness that it's easier to ignore the fact that in real life this whole thing would be a horrible mess.

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Good, clean, escapist fun. George Clooney makes it easy looking smooth even when he's obviously doing something slightly questionable.

Ant-Man (2015)

I just fancied something with Paul Rudd in it, as he has a great, everyman quality (similar to John Cusack, I'd say) that makes watching him great fun. Oddly, Ant-Man's director Peyton Reed has compared Rudd's character in this film with Clooney's in Ocean's Eleven, although I only found this out after I'd seen them both!

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Another choice because I hadn't seen it since - well, probably since it came out. Lots of fun action, occasional humour, bad guy gets killed, all that good stuff. Visually amazing of course, and the rate that the MCU was churning films out at this point was incredible, but fairly simple plot-wise. A good watch though.

Reading - September 2025

Small Inventions That Made a Big Difference by Helen Pilcher (2021)

A series of short essays - what would have been newspaper columns, in a different context - about unconsidered but influential items and how they came to be. The subjects range from paper clips to pacemakers, so the criteria used for selection are fairly fluid. Interesting but inessential reading, and somewhat bitty.

Daydream by Hannah Grace (2024)

Second time reading this in about three months, mainly because I'd since read the previous two Hannah Grace books and although this works standalone, it makes a bit more sense as a follow-on from them. Plus it's a really sweet romance and I just liked the characters!

Guitar by Earl Slick with Jeff Slate (2024)

As the selected discography at the back of the book shows, Earl Slick has worked with a bunch of famous and lesser-known musicians, but all of those fade into insignificance compared to the central creative relationship of his life, that with David Bowie. Slick played more times with Bowie than I'd realised, over 40 years, and unsurprisingly the book is mostly about this. Slick's a real rock'n'roll original and although he says he never considered a different life, you get a sense of how precarious it could be at times. It's an easy read, with some interesting titbits about working as side man Bowie and also with John Lennon, but I didn't get as much of a sense of the man behind the guitar as I did with, say, Steve Lukather's autobiography.

It Just Occurred to Me ... The Reminiscences and Thoughts of Chairman Humph by Humphrey Lyttleton (2006)

A slight but rambling book, being a very loosely connected series of anecdotes, memories and thoughts from a legendary figure in British jazz and radio. In fairness, the title tells you exactly what you're getting, and perhaps the more complete life story is in one of his other eight books. It's entertaining enough - and I learned more about him than I knew before - but a bit disjointed and somewhat unfulfilling. Much of the material is covered in his Desert Island Discs appearance, from the same year, and it's nice to hear him talk, so I'd recommend that over the book.

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood (2023)

Apparently this is more of a YA novel, which might explain why it's a bit less spicy than some of her others that I've read. But in fact that just allows for more story, and I enjoyed what was there, even though it doesn't feel particularly realistic (the main male character is too perfect) - although in fairness I thought it was ridiculous that the chess World Champion would be 20, when in fact the current World Champion was 18 when he won, so what do I know.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood (2021)

This is where the Ali Hazelwood phenom started then. If the initial setup is a little unlikely - although it's no worse than other romcom meet-cutes I suppose - the gradual development of the central relationship from pretend into a real one is believable and emotionally satisfying. Highly readable and very enjoyable.

How I Escaped My Certain Fate by Stewart Lee (2010)

I read this about fourteen years ago and enjoyed it, so the discovery of a copy in a charity shop prompted me to do so again. Still very funny in places, but having seen Lee perform in the mean time, I can see what it loses on the page. He's a very Marmite comedian (who would, no doubt, have something suitably trenchant and acerbic to say about the use of the popular yeast extract as a metaphor for "some people think he's shit") but I think he's great.

Let's Make a Scene by Laura Wood (2025)

From the cover and the blurb, I was expecting this to be a straightforward enemies-to-lovers romance. After a couple of chapters, it seemed obvious that it was actually a fake-dating story (my second this month!). And then, half way through, it turned out to be kind of both and kind of neither, but a really nice mix of those plus a couple of other romance tropes thrown in for good measure, all assembled with more emotional depth than I expected and a really satisfying story development.

The Price of Money by Rob Dix (2022)

A great primer on how the money system works, including why inflation happens and why governments deliberately cause it, what that means for everything else and finally some suggestions about how one might mitigate its effects. Short, chattily and engagingly written - highly recommended.

The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson (2024)

One man's story of his journey into the utter madness of trading in the money markets (probably the wrong term, technically) and of his discovery of a conscience after making millions betting on the world's economy continuing to get worse. Compelling reading, but the combination of this and The Price of Money is somewhat sobering: clearly, no-one actually knows how the current state of capitalism will end up, nor how to control it or the forces that are making it worse - let alone get the actual problems in the world (water scarcity, global warming, inequality, you know, little things like that) attended to.

Pedal Power 2025

Blimey, it's been over three years since I last surveyed my kingdom of effects pedals. I've been chopping and changing a lot, and of course, any pedal set up is ultimately completely dependent on the amp, speaker and cab they're running through, and it's taken me a while to properly realise this. It's only now that I have an amp and cab I'm really happy with. As such, it makes sense to talk about them first.

For some reason that I can no longer recall, about two years ago I got a bee in my bonnet about solid state amps. Valves amps sound great, but they are problematic - power hungry, hot, delicate and expensive. And despite the vast amounts of bullshit spouted about the supposed magical qualities of valves, there are a few people trying to promote the idea that a well designed analogue circuit - so not digital modelling - can achieve the same results and not just be for cheap practice amps.

The long-standing king of solid state is the Peavey Bandit, which has been gaining more respect over the years, and Orange have their Super Crush amps that are very well regarded. And around this time I started hearing more about Quilter amps, and it turned out that they'd recently released a smaller amp.

And so it was that I ended up buying - new! - a Quilter Superblock US, which, despite its size, is a 25W amp. Around the same time, I decided I should have a decent cab and so ordered a Fat Baby 1x12 from the excellent and super-helpful folks at Zilla in Cornwall. As you can see from the picture, the contrast between the tiny amp and the somewhat oversized cab is quite striking! The combination sounds fantastic: the base Superblock US sound is Fender-based, so the cleans are lovely, and when pushed with a drive pedal, it really rocks.

With the core sound established, I re-examined my pedal board. I already had plenty of options, so it wasn't a case of throwing everything out and starting again, just identifying what worked well. For a while, I went minimal: just two pedals and the amp, and in fact the Blackstar boost shown here wasn't really necessary, because the Line 6 HX Stomp provides a comedically over-comprehensive set of options. It's wired so that the signal goes into the Stomp, then the Superblock's pre-amp is in the loop of the Stomp, and then the Stomp is in the loop of the Superblock. The upshot is that I can use the Quilter's pre-amp or bypass it and use a Line 6 amp model, and choose which (modelled) effects go before and after each.

This provided an incredibly wide range of different sounds, what with something like fifty different amp models and several hundred effects to choose from. But I realised after a while that I wasn't really happy with any of the sounds; I'd spend more time fiddling with options than just getting lost in the music. I'm not sure if that's because I know there's always another thing to try, or because I just didn't like what I was hearing, not that I could tell you what it was I didn't like. So I retired the HX Stomp for now and tried again.

Going back to individual pedals has been a bit of a relief, surprisingly - there's a lot less range, but what there is sounds really good. Also, the Pedaltrain fits nicely on top of the cab, so I can either just leave it there or put it on the floor when I play.

The pedals then, in signal order:

Digitech Freqout

This is a brilliant pedal that I've had for a while, but hasn't been on any board I've documented for some reason. All it does - brilliantly - is mimic the sound of a guitar edging into feedback. It's a sound I love and it's hard not to over-use it. It has to be first in the chain in order to get the cleanest sound.

Cry Baby Mini (CBM95)

Some people find this version of the Cry Baby too small, but I don't mind.

Fredric Effects King of Klone

What's better than one Klon Centaur-alike? Two! A staple of my boards for a while now

Blackstar Dept. 10 Boost

I bought a lot of pedals over the last ten years, but none for about a year, and this last one. It was shown on (YouTube channel) TPS and compared favourably to a (much more expensive) Kingsley pedal on the guitar forum. When I found out Blackstar were selling an ostensibly £190 pedal direct on Reverb for £99 (they still are, actually), well, I couldn't resist. It's not a clean boost, but it's a lot flatter (depending on the EQ settings) than the Klone, and adds a nice crunch to any sound. And so, having said I wanted to avoid valve amps, I've ended up with a valve on the board anyway!

Tech 21 Double Drive

An old favourite now, very versatile. Sounds particularly good when boosted by either the Klone or the Dept. 10.

Strymon Ola

I fancied a decent chorus and when this came up secondhand, and knowing the quality of the Strymon stuff - I've had five of their pedals at various times - it was a done deal. The Ola isn't one of their more celebrated pedals and it's a bit of a one-trick pony (a bit like the DIG) but it sounds superb - well up to an Analogman Chorus I A/B'd it with.

BOSS GE-7 (modded)

A fantastic utility pedal. After this, we go into the Superblock's input, and then out of the effects loop into the ...

Strymon Brigadier

I've had (and still have) analogue bucket brigade delays, but this is a better all-round pedal. Sounds gorgeous. Strymon recently released the Brig, which supposedly has reworked algorithms, but I can't hear much of a difference.

Neunaber Immerse (mk 2)

I've not even considered another reverb pedal since I got this (blimey) over four years ago. Interestingly, Quilter recently bought Neunaber, which makes me wonder whether the excellent reverb in the Superblock is theirs.

TC Electronics Ditto+

A great little looper.

The little shaving cream tin on the board holds picks and a tuner - the traditional/cliché utensil for this is an Altoids tin but I have several of these spare. Do these need to be on the board? Debatable. But it keeps it all together.

Reading - August 2025

Some Kind of Wonderful by John Hughes (draft script, 1986)

Any background info or trivia on one of my favourite films is welcome, so I was delighted to stumble across somekindofwonderful.org, a fan site from, I would guess, 20 years ago but amazingly still up and running. There's some amusing bits and pieces there (including the fact that there was a novelisation!) but by far the most interesting thing is this early draft script containing numerous differences from the eventual film. It casts light on some of the more jarring non-sequiturs in the film (like, why does Watts suddenly ask Keith if he misses her?) and contains a somewhat different (and frankly, unconvincing) ending. I'm not going to pretend Some Kind of Wonderful is a classic film but I'm very fond of it and this is great stuff.

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (2017)

To start with, this didn't seem very promising - the unvarnished, day-to-day trivia of the man who runs (and owns) the "largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland". But its low-key charm and humour grew on me, and the never-ending series of clueless customers, while I am sure intensely frustrating in real life, is dryly amusing on the page.

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks (2023)

Here's an interesting combination of approaches: ostensibly an account of the making of a real film, written (mostly) as if it was a novel, but actually completely fictional. Except that - not least because Tom Hanks is the author - I'm certain that pretty much all of this is based on real events in some way. Even though there's no real plot - we just taken through the process of making a film - it's entertaining and compelling, and gives a brilliant insight into the sheer effort and logistics involved in the undertaking (and quite a lot about the madness and egos, too). And the fact that Tom Hanks, when he's not busy being one the best screen actors in history, can write this well is a bit like learning that your dad is a brilliant sculptor in his spare time, but you only just found out.

Knightshade: The Lathe of Firefall by "Bill Johnson" (Tom Hanks?) (2023)

Brilliantly, the whole script for the film being made in The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece (above) is online, via a QR code in the book. I'm not experienced enough to judge whether it's much cop as a script; not much happens, but given that it's supposedly a new installment in an MCU-like arc, it seems comparable with that kind of film (one fight scene starts with the description "The sequence will last the better part of a half hour"). What I love about it though is that it was clearly fully imagined before the book was written, because there are multiple points where the book mentions the casting of a role, or how dialog was changed, or sequences filmed, that match the script.

The Funny Thing About Love by Tom Ellen (2024)

Predictable but emminently readable and predictably and enjoyably feel-good romance. Finished it in a couple of days.

Happy Place by Emily Henry (2023)

A clever structure of alternating then and now chapters gives us both the beginning and end of the relationship - except that, of course, the real end will be a reconciliation. So the chapters showing us the past keep the read from being too depressing, while the chapters about the characters' current reality build the tension. Will they work things out? It builds over longer than I would normally like, but does make the final ending more satisfying. I could quibble about the fairly obvious emotional manipulation going on here - it's a bit like being able to see the machinery behind the illusion - but it didn't stop me enjoying the book and wanting to reach the end (in a good way).

Watching - August 2025

The Naked Gun (2025)

Sunday afternoon cinema visit with the boys! I don't think I knew this new version was about to be released when I watched the original a couple of weeks earlier, and said that probably the spoof only worked for people old enough to remember what it was spoofing. But B & Z both enjoyed it, so clearly I was wrong about that. This is hit and miss, just like the original, but even though it's more hit than miss, overall it's a fun film to pass a couple of hours rather than a future classic.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

I've watched this many times, but it's always been a TV version that I recorded ages ago. I bought this on DVD recently and so this is first time I've seen the full, unexpurgated cut. There's a lot more! Still brilliant of course.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)

Family choice for Saturday viewing with pizza. Great fun, although I can't fully decide if the constant derision of The Teenz (who, lest we forget, chose this) is amusing or irritating. Probably both.

The Secret of My Success (1987)

A bit of a curio, and very much of its time - the clothes, the ambition, the casual sexism. Amusing enough, but it's not really sure if it's a satire or an instruction manual - or, briefly, a bedroom farce.

50 First Dates (2004)

Comfort, can't be arsed to think of something more challenging to watch viewing. There's a lot to dislike about the film, really, but for me, the central story between Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler is enough to win me over. The less said about Rob Schneider's performance the better.

The Princess Diaries (2001)

Saturday evening family choice, which actually I was quite pleased about because I hadn't seen it for ages and it's a sweet, uncomplicated film with plenty of funny moments and the peerless Julie Andrews for class.

Watching - July 2025

Taskmaster (season 19, 2025)

A sudden jump to season 19, as K - who I watch with - managed to grind through everything from 5 to 18 without me, and also it turns out she was desperate to watch Mathew Baynton. Very entertaining as always, although possibly ten episodes is stretching it a little and of course, as with anything improvised, it can be a bit hit or miss. But you can't fault the creativity or the effort put in, both by Alex Horne and the Taskmaster team (excluding Greg Davies, who seems to have it rather easy) and the participants. Also, fun fact I learned: Alex Horne lives in Chesham, near where I grew up, and many of the filming locations are in the area!

Live Aid at 40 (2025)

A documentary about such a complex subject - even a three part one, as here - is only going to be able to skim the surface of the event itself, let alone all the political and social issues that led up to it and that arose from it. Still, this was a balanced and interesting overview of an incredible series of achievements.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 4, 2016-2017)

I said I'd give myself a break after the last season, but actually, this is perfectly sized for consumption in between other things, and sufficiently unchallenging viewing for when I'm tired or not feeling well (although this is obviously doing a disservice to the amount of effort involved in making it). I could do without the cliffhanger at the end of each season (of course it will resolve itself - the essence of a sitcom is that the "sit" never changes), but it's nice to see Jake and Amy in a straightforward relationship, without gratuitous roadblocks thrown in the way, and all 22 episodes are effortlessly funny.

The Naked Gun (1988)

It's possible that parody dates faster than just about any other form of comedy. Being the film version of the early 80s TV series Police Squad, which in turn was a spoof of 60s and 70s police dramas, this was probably already out of date when it was released. It didn't stop it being a success, and yes, it is funny - but I'm guessing only for people my age or above?

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Comfort viewing for while I'm ill. Still brilliant.

Inside Out (2015)

Having stumbled across an interesting video about Inside Out, I couldn't not watch the film itself, especially since I haven't seen it since records began! (ok, actually, so in at least five years) I still think it's incredibly insightful, and they have so much fun with the metaphor of how memories get stored (including repeatedly sending a random commercial back for fun). A classic for a reason.

Mission: Impossible (1996)

This is basically a James Bond film, right? Silly, fairly mindless action fun that jumps round multiple random locations. Kept me entertained.

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

A Powell/Pressburger film that I'm not quite sure warrants the "masterpiece" accolade given by some (including Martin Scorcese, no less), but as a lovely example of a romantic comedy of the time, it's unquestionably charming.

Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (2019)

A weird, hodge-podge of a film that can't decide what it wants to be, so ends up being bits of about three. Not that any of it is bad by any means, it's just that the motivation seems to be more that Quentin Tarantino wanted to do a pastiche/tribute to various bits of Hollywood history and retrofitted a story around them. He - along with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio - seem to be having great fun remaking a lost era, but I suspect most of it is lost on anyone who isn't a film buff. For example, 8 August, 1969 - the date of the Tate murders - wouldn't have registered with me if I hadn't read the synopsis ahead of time. But without this information, or knowledge of what actually happened that day, the ending's impact is completely fudged. Still, I enjoyed it, nothing dragged, Pitt in particular is very good and I'm pleased I watched it. (side note: just reading some of the ridiculous critical theories catalogued on Wikipedia confirms to me that it's a film made for film geeks to bullshit about and I have no doubt that this is part of Tarantino's motivation also)

How Do You Know? (2010)

I can see what the makers were trying to do here, but the story is too slight for the emotions they're attempting to invoke. So, ultimately, it's a bit unsatisfying, because it's not clear why the two main characters should feel strongly enough end up together. It's a shame, because Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd are very good. Oh well.

Reading - July 2025

Book Lovers by Emily Henry (2022)

Enjoyable and readable bit of nonsense.

One Night on the Island by Josie Silver (2022)

If the setup is a bit contrived and unbelievable - two strangers sharing a one-bed cottage on a remote island for several weeks - the follow through is excellent, tracing the development of a relationship. Really sweet.

Things We Do For Love by Miranda Dickinson (2024)

Judging by her list of published novels, Miranda Dickinson has developed a habit of using well-known song titles for her books - I immediately thought of 10cc when I saw this but possibly she was thinking of Kylie. Anyway, the generic title bears no relation to the specifics of the plot, which is a shame because not only does the Shakespeare based plot begs to have something more relevant, but she even has one ready made in the story: "A Night of Bard Language". That aside, this is a reasonably predictable but enjoyable story set in Stratford-upon-Avon that I read happily to its obvious conclusion.

Return to Virgin River by Robyn Carr (2020)

'Tis the Season by Robyn Carr (2014)

And so ends my affair with Virgin River. I've really enjoyed the world Robyn Carr created, and the way it built up. I think the first half-dozen books were probably the best, as the secondary characters had their own story arcs too and someone introduced in one book might get their own chance as a main character in two books' time. Latterly, it's just new people randomly turning up at the beginning of a story - you know: "hey, have you met Kyle, my second cousin's son's best friend?" - and then amazingly bumping into the future love of their life. But I'll still miss reading the books now I've finished them all.

The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer (2022)

Bob Mortimer's personality runs through this book like words through a stick of rock, as the main character could easily be a version of himself. That gives a unique flavour to the story and definitely helps make the book more readable. The plot is a little far-fetched but good-natured with it, and it's nice to see everything work out properly in the end.

Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson (2022)

It's obvious where this is going from pretty much the first page, which makes the author's attempts at misdirection not just redundant but a little annoying. Nevertheless, it's saved by a cute storyline and what we have in the end is a sweet, PG-rated story that kept my attention.

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace (2022)

Hannah Grace, on the other hand, writes very un-PG-rated stories. The characters are all pretty much obsessed with sex but actually that doesn't strike me as entirely unrealistic, based on my recollection of myself and my friends at similar ages, and in fairness there is also a decent enough plot decorating the bones of the plot. This is her first novel and I think it shows a few rough edges: the villain in particular is just generally unpleasant for no obvious reason, and I can't decide if the female main character is a too-good-to-be-true male sex fantasy or just an honest portrayal of girls these days. But it's very readable overall and pretty spicy in places.

My Word is My Bond by Roger Moore (2008)

Roger Moore has, of course, achieved much more than just the seven James Bond films he starred in, and I came away impressed by the amount of work he's done. But the book is otherwise fairly boring, with little sense of progression, and largely becomes just a series of anecodotes. Passed the time though.

Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons (1986-1987; this compilation 2014)

I've known about Watchmen for ages, but graphic novels have never been my thing and the few times I've tried them, they seem pretty trivial - short stories with pictures that provide an hour's diversion. Watchmen is the antithesis of this: a complex story with multiple subplots, often being told simultaneously, using the illustrations to properly further the story. I'm still not sure I like it much as a medium, but there's no denying the sheer imagination and ambition here - I'm pleased I gave it a try.

The Story of the Country House by Clive Aslet (2023)

Undoubtedly a good introduction to the subject, but still somewhat dry - and woefully under-illustrated, which given that this is all about aesthetics, is an odd omission. Yes, I can look things up on Wikipedia but that's not the point. Still, it did make me want to go and see more of the remaining country houses so that's probably a good thing.

Space Hopper by Helen Fisher (2021)

I really enjoyed this. For a while I wasn't quite sure where it was going, but it came together really nicely at the end in a bit of a twist I wasn't expecting at all, and it was very moving in places.

The Spare Room by Laura Starkey (2024)

Simple and straightforward romance, with a chatty style and slightly one-dimensional characters. But readable and sweet.

Wildfire by Hannah Grace (2023)

A more complete plot than her first book - albeit still quite YA-angsty - helps this be a good read. Notwithstanding the main couple's issues with their families, it's all bit idealised, but the characters are fun to be around and as most of it's set at a summer camp, it appeals to me as it reminds me of my time as a supervisor!

Reading - June 2025

Wayfaring Stranger by Emma John (2019)

Bluegrass is not a musical style I know much about and, having listened to a little now while reading this book, I'm afraid I'm not that bothered about learning more. But Emma John's enthusiasm for it comes across brilliantly and that carried me along completely. Her "musical journey in the American South" (the book's subtitle) doesn't come across as one that was undertaken in order to write a book, but rather driven by a genuine curiosity and desire to learn. It no doubt helped that she really can play the fiddle (there's a couple of YouTube videos if you're interested), and the result is the kind of travelogue that only an outsider (she's from London) can really write. Very enjoyable.

Redwood Bend by Robyn Carr (2012)

I'm nearing the end of the Virgin River series, and although they are all pretty similar, they're good-hearted, dramatic without being melodramatic (mostly) and feature characters you care about. However, in this instalment, the couple end up not choosing to live in Virgin River <gasp>. This is an unheard of departure and I'm not sure I like it. Seriously though, as well told and easy to read as always for this series.

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (2022)

In this third book in the record breaking (it says here) Thursday Murder Club series, the plot is increasingly implausible - perhaps that's the point (it's a cozy armchair mystery), but it does make it a little hard if you're trying to guess the plot based on logic, and of course none of the suspense can be taken seriously because we know none of the main characters will actually be killed. But I never try anyway, so that's fine for me. An enjoyable piece of nonsense that, for some reason, I've taken over two years to get round to reading (sorry C).

How To by Randall Munroe (2019)

A nice easy and very funny re-read. I love the slight recurring theme that some of the more ridiculous ideas have actually been researched by the US Government.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (2024)

A new series from everyone's favourite quiz show host and general media polymath! Most of the things we expect from Osman are present and correct: anchoring cultural touchstones (as he acknowledges in the, er, acknowledgements, he mentions "Twix", "Greggs" and "Lee Child" in the first fifteen pages), pointless but amusing details (the directions to and from the New Forest are funny) and a signature pathos about death of loved ones. And the plot is slightly ridiculous, and the "ordinary" people turn out to be anything but. All jolly good fun though and immensely readable.

Rest You Merry by Charlotte MacLeod (1978)

An odd mix of styles that I found hard to like, but I finished it because I wanted to know how the murder mystery played out. I hadn't realised until afterwards that it was first published in 1978, so that probably explains some of the oddities, but in fairness nothing actually jarred or stood out as hopelessly dated. It's the first in a series but I don't think I'll bother with the rest.

Mixonline Classic Tracks by various authors (2009-2025)

In a very similar vein to the Sound On Sound classic tracks series (and featuring many of the same tracks), but with less of a focus on the engineers only and with more contributions from the artists themselves. Interesting reading and introduced me to a lot of tracks that I hadn't heard before, like Eddie Money's "Two Tickets to Paradise". Full playlist here!

Never: The Autobiography by Rick Astley (2024)

I didn't know much about Rick Astley other than that - like Andrew Ridgeley - he seemed like a nice guy who did a few years in the limelight before choosing to return to a sane, normal life. It turns out it wasn't quite that simple for Rick, as we learn through this honest and engaging book. Obviously he had help writing it (the Guardian's head of music journalism Alexis Petridis is thanked right at the beginning) but it comes across as Astley's own voice, and is an easy read that's well worth the time. And it's good to know he's happy now!

Rebel Rebel by Chris O'Leary (2015)

Ian MacDonald's classic Revolution in the Head inspired many people, no doubt, to attempt the same feat on their own favoured artist. The Beatles had a nicely defined, complete output that covered only eight years and it's tempting to argue that you could select a similarly short period from David Bowie's life and gather all the most essential recordings. This nearly does that; if you started a little later than '64 and then included Low and "Heroes" you'd probably be fine. But the subtitle says "All the Songs of David Bowie from '64 to '76" and it's really not kidding, and since Bowie made so many false starts that means including a lot of fairly dull juvenalia. As a result, there's quite a bit of the book that's quite hard going, even allowing for the very fragmented nature of splitting into a commentary on individual songs. But once we reach the real hits, the narrative lights up and by the time we get to Station to Station (where this book ends), O'Leary is doing a superb job highlighting just how outré Bowie's records were for a mainstream rock star. Bowie was the first "serious" artist I got into as a teenager, and I'm so familiar with tracks like "Sweet Thing/Candidate" or "Station to Station" that's it good to be reminded how far away from blues-based rock they actually are - the closing essay on the latter is fantastic. It took me a while to get through (partly because I insisted on listening to each track while reading about it) but worth it. I'm a bit scared of the next book though - it's twice the size!

Sunset Point by Robyn Carr (2012)

Another fun instalment of the Virgin River series, and if this time I could have done without the "other woman" being quite such a caricature, and the ending not quite so abrupt, well, it didn't stop me enjoying the book overall.

Begin Again by Helly Acton (2023)

Well, the title is a bit misleading as our main character gets to see what would have happened if she had taken the other route at key moments in her life - but, crucially, she doesn't actually get to begin again. However, in what is a bit like a cross between Sliding Doors and A Christmas Carol, she does visit alternate timelines and learn about herself and her effect on others. A fun premise, well executed and easy to read, and providing a nice bit of feel-good incentive if you need it, perhaps.

Recursion by Blake Crouch (2019)

An example of the "what is reality?" strand of science fiction, in the grand tradition of Philip K. Dick and, more recently, Christopher Nolan. The only thing that marred it slightly for me was the bit where it kind of elided how implanting false memories in one person made every single person in the world go back in time - that not only didn't make sense (yeah I get that this is SF) but didn't seem to me to be consistent within the universe of the novel. So although everything that followed from that assumption was great, along with the thriller elements, it didn't quite hold true for me. Good fun though, and I ripped through it in about a day!

Modern Recording Techniques by David Miles Huber & Emiliano Caballero (10th edition, 2024)

This was recommended by a working engineer/producer (on a forum) as one of the essential, standard works on recording, so I thought it would be interesting, both as an insight into how recording audio all fits together and as a way of understanding the subject better so I could have a go myself. It's laid out (and priced) like a text book, and no doubt is used as one in many places. I can't fault its scope - it covers a lot of ground - and while the editing and fact checking could have been better in a couple of places, it really has got loads of useful information that I am sure I'll refer back to at some point. However, I didn't find it easy to read and the layout is nowhere near as good as The Producer's Manual by Paul White - although in fairness, the latter is more explicitly aimed at a hobbyist like me!

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood (2025)

Maybe I don't get out much, but I haven't seen sub-dom (maledom in this case) relationships depicted much in the kind of mainstream romance I read - or, more accurately, I haven't seen it labelled explicitly as that. There are too many books where the strong woman becomes a simpering, submissive idiot when she meets "the one", and that makes me uncomfortable, as the men nearly always come across as sexist, controlling arseholes. In this story, Hazelwood makes it very clear that the central couple make a conscious, agreed and joint choice about their relationship, and logically that is much better - but it still doesn't sit right with the part of me that is very aware of the instrinsic power balance of most male-female relationships. However, the author manages to portray consensual submissiveness without implying that actually what all women need is a man to tell them what to do - and, honestly, I can kind of see the appeal of an arrangement like this, and I really enjoyed the story and a little soujourn into this world. Sure, the MMC (I've literally only just discovered the acronyms for all this book reviewing shit) is an unrealistically perfect robot but perhaps that just how he appears to the FMC (the book's in first person from her point of view). And shorn of the (pretty mild, imho) kinkiness, the plot is a pretty standard romance arc. But that didn't stop me charging through the book in a couple of days.

My Kind of Christmas by Robyn Carr (2012)

Yeah I know it's not Christmas - but even though you don't really have to read the books in this series in order, I want to anyway, and this is where I am. A little under-developed compared to other books in the series: the characters fall in love pretty much immediately and there's a half-hearted "oh noes what if they can't be together" plot line that we all know is going to be resolved. But satisfying anyway when it is.

Talking at Night by Claire Daverley (2023)

DNF, and in the first few pages too. I find this fad - and yes, obviously that's what it is - for not using quotation marks to be ridiculous and pretentious, and it constantly takes me out of the world. Apparently Sally Rooney is one of the most notable recent authors guilty of this, and although I'd wondered about reading Normal People, that completely excludes it for me now. I've read a few articles where other authors attempt to justify redefining grammatical rules that work fine for everyone else, and they all miss the point: if you want to communicate your ideas, then a common set of rules helps your reader. Otherwise you might as well invent your own words - and let's face it, there aren't that many Shakespeares writing today. Laura Miller puts the case against this pointless affectation much better than I do.

Daydream by Hannah Grace (2024)

K says I have the fiction taste of a teenage girl, and it's hard to argue if I describe the process by which I selected this from the library: it has a cute-looking couple on the pastel-coloured cover and a classic romance plot described on the back. I didn't have particularly high expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised to find sweet characters I cared about, likeable secondary characters and a story that got me really invested!

Adventures in Modern Recording: From ABC to ZZT by Trevor Horn (2022)

A perfectly readable but slightly sketchy (in the sense of lacking detail) account of snapshots in Trevor Horn's life. Each chapter is about a specific track, although it sometimes branches out to others he worked on, but you still get the sense that there's a lot missing. In fairness, he sounds like a busy man so if he included more, the book would be twice the size!

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (2022)

Excellent fun, with a You've Got Mail inspired sub-theme (even if it was obvious from about the first page who her correspondent was). I enjoyed seeing how the FMC went from thinking the guy hated her to realising the opposite, and if the cartoon villain was a bit Scooby Doo and one-dimensional, it didn't spoil things. And the extended rants about sexism in academia and STEM subjects in particular were great.

Funny Story by Emily Henry (2024)

Well, this meet-cute - girl moves in with ex-fiancé's new fiancé's ex - would a bit icky in real life, I think, but in the world of the story, it's kind of sweet and has lots of fun characters. There's some depth and insight into characters, but maybe not a lot of growth. But it's still a nice read and I enjoyed it.

Watching - June 2025

Hot Pursuit (2015)

Slightly ho-hum buddy movie, showing its age with some clichés (particularly about women) that I hope wouldn't get the time of day now. But funny in places, and passed the time.

The Time Traveller's Wife (2009)

I read the book about two and a half years ago and enjoyed it very much, so I was keen to see what the adaptations are like. There's a more recent TV series but I'm unlikely to get Apple TV for a while, so when this came up on Prime I was interested. It's a two hour film so of course it misses on much of the content and subtlety of the book - it can't show the internal thoughts of the characters and there's a limit to what it can show. So instead of a moving meditation on the effects of long term illness on a relationship (in my opinion, anyway) you get a sort of thriller/romance. The film brings to life some scenes well - Henry's despair at suddenly being transported to random places was much clearer in pictures than on the page - but struggles in others, particularly the ones with Henry as an adult and Clare as a child, where it's harder to ignore the slightly problematic nature of the relationship. Still, a sweet film and a nice way to pass the time.

Maestro (2023)

While I'm usually not very good at working out the underling themes of films, I think I've got this one. This is ostensibly a biopic of Leonard Bernstein, but really it's about what an amazing talent Bradley Cooper is. It's fatally infatuated with its own cleverness of direction and emotional truths, when actually it's just a posh TV melodrama, stuffed with clichés (ooh look, Bernstein is smoking in every scene! What a original, subtle and clever directorial choice!), over-theatrics - cue the Oscar nomination scene! - and poor dialogue; in one case, Cooper (did we mention that he wrote the script as well as directing and starring - blimey, what an amazing talent, eh?) has Bernstein say he "misread the room" ... in the 70s? Come on. And don't get me started on the startlingly poor choice to put Cooper in Jewface. I get that biopics are difficult - you're trying to fit decades of a real and messy life into a convenient two hour story arc - but this failed badly, in my opinion, and I was already counting the minutes to the end after about twenty minutes in. Somehow I finished it, but I couldn't get involved. 

Somewhere In Time (1980)

I was reading around the subject of The Time Traveller's Wife and this was mentioned - a little-known, slightly hokey and very sentimental romance starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour film that features time travel. Mostly forgotten now (apart from by a small but very enthusiastic fan club), there's nothing particularly special about it and if it wasn't for the big names (Christopher Plummer also features) it would be a typical TV movie - and indeed it effectively was, as apparently it got a new lease of life on early cable. So, nothing special - but I still enjoyed it more than Maestro.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 3, 2015-2016)

My kids are finally shaming me into watching more of this, since I haven't made much progress since last year! Is it worth it? Well, I enjoyed it, but a whole series is something like the same duration as four films, and that's a lot of time to spend with the same characters. I'll give myself a bit of a break before the next season.

F1 The Movie (2025)

A summer blockbuster about Formula One, on the biggest screen in Southampton, and with sound that shakes your seat - what's not to like? I really enjoyed the whole experience (even the fly that caught in the projector didn't annoy me); the action scenes are spectacular, there's laughs and emotional bits and some sort of redemption. The plot? Well, it's tempting to describe it as essentially a re-run of Top Gun: Maverick: old hand is called out of retirement for one last hurrah, and shows those upstart young 'uns what a real driver can do, by disregarding the rules blah blah blah. Brad Pitt's good (not as good as Tom Cruise, though), but I was pleased to hear so many British voices - this is true to F1 life, of course, but it wouldn't have surprised me if Hollywood decided that all these weird foreign accents would be too difficult for Americans to understand. But overall, although the (mostly ex-) F1 fan in me had a great time, it's hard not consider the film as a whole as pretty insubstantial, and I suspect that anyone not interested in the sport would find it a bit of a yawn (a view articulately and, I'd say, accurately, argued in Nicholas Barber's review on the BBC)

Monsters, Inc (2001)

I was reminded of this via a YouTube video that I now cannot find, but anyway, I hadn't seen it for ages and so was charmed all over again. Very good.

Clueless (1995)

So, anyway - it's, like, the 30th anniversary of this iconic teen romcom. And it's being re-released (briefly) into cinemas this weekend, so what better time to watch it again? At home, though - I considered going out, but it's only being shown on the smallest screens, so it would have been a bit pointless. It's still peerless, even if you could point at some moments and call them dated.

Reading - May 2025

Wild Man Creek by Robyn Carr (2011)

There's obviously a formula to the Virgin River books, but Robyn Carr does a good job of varying the principal characters and keeps it from feeling too repetitive. I wish the heroine's ex had been given more of a comeuppance but that wasn't the main point of the story.

Manwatching by Desmond Morris (1977)

I remember this book being in the school library, but other than occasionally looking at the pictures of naked women (hey, I was 13 and we didn't have the internet), I didn't read it. However, I found it a couple of years ago in a charity shop and was curious. There's lots of interest, but what I find most fascinating is completely how it betrays the time in which it was written. Morris goes for a scientific, detached tone but more often only achieves patronising, and overall it couldn't be clearer that this is a book anchored in the male- and white-centric attitudes of the seventies. The whole section on sport only discusses and pictures men, while the section on aesthetic behaviour has photos of women in swimsuits. I'm no anthropologist but it seems obvious that many of the conclusions here mistake superficial and specific western social customs for underlying human "truths". Still, at the very least it's interesting to see how things have changed in the last forty years. (note: the edition I read is the original; the latest is called Peoplewatching and given the change in title, I really hope it's been updated to remove the more egregiously sexist content.)

Harvest Moon by Robyn Carr (2011)

A bit more depth than some of these books, with a troubled teenage daughter complicating the core relationship - but of course, she comes round in the end! At one point I was really caught up in it.

Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett (2001)

More than most Discworld books, this leaves me feeling like there's something I'm missing here that I'm just not well-read enough to understand. But reading the initial quote from Terry Pratchett at the start of the Annotated Pratchett file (link above) makes me think perhaps not. Anyway, the usual Discworld frenetic-ness abounds, although perhaps this one is a bit more meta-physical than usual. Eminently readable and as always, you can't fault the level of imagination that's gone into it.

Listen by Michal Faber (2023)

A hugely enjoyable discussion about why we listen to and enjoy music, from a  sociological perspective rather than a physiological one. If that sounds a bit dry, well, it isn't. Although it's clearly conceived as a complete work, it is effectively structured as a collection of connected essays on related topics. That can make it a little bitty, but I didn't mind as the writing was interesting. If, like me, you love music but (crucially) also tie your identity to some extent to that love of music, then there's lots to think about here. Some of it resonated with opinions I already had, some was a useful new perspective, but all was entertaining. Highly recommended.

Hidden Summit by Robyn Carr (2011)

Book number 15 in the Virgin River series! Getting towards the end now, I think. A pretty straightforward plot, but with some good drama going on too. Ends a bit suddenly though.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2020)

This was recommended to me by B - possibly almost a year ago - and I put it off for ages because I'm not really a fan of fantasy. But it's nicely compact (Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is off-puttingly thick) and now I have more time, I felt I owed it to him to give it a go. And I'm pleased I did - it was very readable and I polished it off in an afternoon, so keen was I to learn what it was all about. But even though I really enjoyed it, I'm a bit disappointed. For most of the book, I assumed that the other world described would turn out to be really this world, but seen from a completely different point of view. However, it seems that the other world is, in fact, just another world (like Narnia, to which there are several references). OK, so far, so fantasy. But I do prefer my stories to be rooted in some kind of reality, so this, in some respects, for me, is a less imaginative option. But that's not to take away from the quality of the writing and I liked the slight element of mystery that was gradually unravelled.

Skallagrigg by William Horwood (1987)

I've owned this book since the early 90s (on the recommendation of a friend who wasn't known for reading much) and probably not read it since then. But it's survived various purges of books over thirty years because I remembered it being worth it, and I wasn't wrong. There's a lot going on and much that is very moving, even if it is a borderline mawkish at times (albeit one could say, with justification). A unique story.

Kilt Trip by Alexandra Kiley (2024)

Chosen fairly at random in the library on the basis of an amusing title and a promising premise (although I wouldn't have described this as an "enemies to lovers" romance like the cover says). Some of the relationship obstacles feel a bit forced and our hero is waaayyy to good to be true, but this doesn't stop me willing them to sort everything out.

Nothing Is Real by David Hepworth (2018)

Second time of reading (I saw it in the library and just fancied it - completely failing to remember that I actually own a copy) and I enjoyed it a bit more this time, I think. Hepworth's slightly staccato style is still a little jarring on paper but he knows what he's talking about, and if a few of the collected pieces here are a bit shorter than I'd like, well, never mind. Still waiting for a volume two though.

Showstopper by Peter Lovesey (2023)

An enjoyable murder mystery in the classic Christie mode. It's taken me a year since the first Peter Diamond book I read to get to this one, but I'll find more soon.

Watching - May 2025

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)

I've been meaning to watch this for a while, having heard acceptable things about it, and I do love Eurovision. And it's that time of year, so it seemed appropriate. Well, I made it about 40 minutes in before giving up. It's woefully unfunny, appallingly patronising, and grindingly tedious. Will Ferrell lacks any subtlety as either a writer or performer and, as well as demonstrating an almost complete failure to understand anything about Eurovision as a cultural phenomenon, has managed to badly miscast himself in his own film, which is some sort of achievement. The whole thing is like a bad translation of a classic book into another language. It's only redeeming feature - in the bit I managed to sit through - is that someone has very effectively nailed the music styles. 

Red Notice (2021)

Apparently this is one of the most successful films on Netflix, which I can totally understand, as it's an easy watch, Ryan Reynolds is great being, y'know, Ryan Reynolds, and it happily fills time. I've seen it before and still didn't remember the twist at the end, which may say something about the memorableness of the plot, but more likely about me.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021)

Amazon offered me yet another free trial of Prime so this is the first thing I watched. Again. I still love it. I wish I could own a copy.

Overboard (2018)

A gender-reversed version of the Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, er, "classic", you say? Well, only if it has under 25% on Rotten Tomatoes. It does? Count me in! Actually a perfectly watchable remake that adds nothing to the original but is funny and ends happily (and incidentally has a much better user rating that RT gives it). Kept me amused, anyway, so clearly I have lower standards than the critics (but this isn't news).

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

An unabashed tribute to fast-talking, screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s, with Jennifer Jason Leigh doing her best Katharine Hepburn as a hard-boiled reporter, and an exaggerated style of its own. I remember watching it years - decades - ago and enjoying it. Coming back to it now that I know more of the movies it's emulating, I can see how closely the Coen brothers (and all their crew, of course) matched them, not just in style but in substance - which is to say, there isn't much emotional depth here, just like something such as Bringing Up Baby. Very clever and entertaining, but possibly a little shallow.

Wandavision (2021)

I'm not much of an MCU fan, and so although I've watched quite a few of the films (with the boys in particular), I wasn't overly bothered about this when it came out. But Z persuaded me otherwise (basically in exchange for him watching some of my recommendations) and so we binged it over a few nights. I loved the initial concept of each episode being based on a different sitcom, although some of them are so US-specific it failed to resonate culturally as much as the makers probably intended. For example, something like Family Ties (the sitcom that made Michael J. Fox famous, parodied in episode 5) was huge in the US but less so around the rest of the world, so you're left with a bit of a "huh?" moment. I'm not sure where else you could have taken that but it felt like the slow change into a fairly typical series of Marvel fight scenes was a bit of a disappointment. Full marks for the sitcom scenes though.

Eurovision Song Contest 2025 - Grand Final (2025)

All the usual fun!

Last One Laughing UK (season 1, 2025)

I heard about this via Richard Osman on the brilliant podcast The Rest Is Entertainment and it was interesting to hear his perspective as a producer: mainly that, as a format, it's genius, because you get ten comedians in a room for a day, and out of that, you've got an entire season! The show originated in Japan several years ago and has now been franchised to nearly thirty countries (the UK is surprisingly late to this party), so clearly it's been a success from a production point of view. However, on the evidence of the UK version, it's a mixed bag for the viewer. There are laughs, but not as many as a good scripted sitcom (which, in fairness, would be a much more expensive proposition). It starts a bit slowly, gets funnier but peters out slightly at the end, and there are too many shots of the participants making faces to try not to laugh, which are ultimately not that amusing. It's a bit hit and miss, really, and, annoyingly, the climax of the show is not actually the funniest moment. But that's the risk and balance you take, as a producer, I guess: maybe there's some sort of price per laugh formula - just good enough to get people watching, cheap enough to make within a certain budget.

Fargo (1996)

It probably says a lot about me that I enjoyed the ostensibly awful remake of Overboard earlier this month more than I did this. Sure, I know Fargo is a classic. William Goldman waxes lyrical about the script in his book Which Lie Did I Tell? and Roger Ebert's original review is glowing. These are both people whose views I trust a lot. There's probably all sorts of craft, themes and subtext that I don't even realise are going on (although probably not to the extent of this ridiculous over-analysis). I'm pleased I've seen it, but the story itself is really not my cup of tea, I don't get what the point of the film is, and I can't enjoy a film for the technique.

Last One Laughing Australia (2020)

Despite feeling that LOL UK was a very qualified success (see above), I was curious enough about the format to investigate a couple of the other dozen or so versions available on Prime. The setup is identical - enough that I wonder if it's the same set, just dressed differently - but of course the show changes vastly with a change of personnel. The Australian version was a lot more scatological and puerile in places, mainly due to one of the participants but possibly because of cultural differences I guess. I'm not sure in hindsight why I carried on watching, but overall it's a light-hearted, easy watch. And I don't know if it's coincidence, but in the Australian, UK and Canadian versions, it's what you might term the "elder statesman" of the group who wins. And I think I'm done with it for now.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

I happened to be listening to George Thorogood's brilliant "Bad to the Bone" and that reminded me of the scene when Arnie first rides off on the Harley, so I watched that and then obviously the rest of the film followed. Great stuff if you can ignore the time paradox stuff!

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

More time paradoxes (paradoxi?) that don't really bear thinking about - just enjoy a great film full of fun moments. Trilogy watched with Z.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

This is part of my cultural landscape and so, as such, I find it hugely enjoyable.

Hello Quo (2012)

I can't remember what prompted me to watch this again, other than it was free on Prime - although I'm sure when I watched it before, it was about half the length. A good reminder of how good they were in the early-to-mid 70s in particular, a bit less convincing about their continued relevance at the time of filming. 

Moana (2016)

Great songs, great animation - a classic already. Hard to see why Disney are bothering to remake it as live action (I mean, other than money ... but what other reason do they need, I suppose). Some revision for watching the sequel ...

Moana 2 (2024)

... which we watched that evening for our Saturday family film night. Very obviously a sequel, unfortunately: pretty much a shopping list of the same elements as the original, just not done as well - certainly it didn't keep the teens attention well enough. Can't fault the animation though.

Watching - April 2025

Back to the Future (1985)

Forty years old and as fresh as a daisy (although I'm not sure what's specifically so pristine about daisies). Saturday film night with Z.

Back to the Future II (1989)

The second BTTF film is usually considered the worst of the three,^{[citation needed]} but although it's the most complicated, it's also the most satisfyingly complete from a time-travel point-of-view.

The Lego Movie (2014)

Blimey, over ten years old! Surely this has to be the best of the product tie-in films - imaginative,  very funny. tongue-in-cheek and superbly animated. A firm favourite in our house for a reason - the kids were speaking along with it during our pizza 'n' movie night.

Wicked Little Letters (2024)

I'm not quite sure why Netflix describes this as a "riotous comedy" - there are some funny moments for sure, but there's more drama than laughs and the overall message about the subjugation and judgement of women in the 1920s is, ultimately, not amusing at all, just the cause of indignation (as intended, of course). But it's a good watch and the three central women - Olivia Coleman, Jessie Buckley and Anjana Vasan - are superb.

Our Welsh Chapel Dream (season 2, 2025)

Unfortunately this time there's even more of a feeling of the material being stretched than there was in the first series. The narrator is doing double time, so even if you discount the (apparently necessary) multiple re-caps at the top of each episode and after each ad break, the main voice you hear is his. Poor old Keith and Marj feel like they're just supporting artists in their own documentary, as they only really pop up for a sentence or two at a time, and the whole is very disjointed. Still a watchable series though, even if it's just to marvel at the outré decorative choices being made!

Hidden Figures (2016)

I struggled with the original book of this (or maybe it was one of those that just didn't download to my e-reader properly, I can't remember), but really enjoyed the film - as a piece of storytelling with a clear point. There's no question that many liberties have been taken with historical accuracy in order to tell it (just see the fairly damning list on Wikipedia), and while this is to some extent understandable - as the book's author says, you can't have a film with 300 heroes - it spoils it a bit for me to find that, once again, a really interesting piece of real life has been chopped around to fit a standard Hollywood template. That said, it's still making important points as well as being moving.

Waking Ned (1998)

A simple idea, wonderfully told - even if is leaning a little heavily on a vision of bucolic Irish country simplicity - very funny and very sweet in places. The (small) twist at the end is unbelievable and unnecessary in my view, though.

The Wild Robot (2024)

Animated films take a huge amount of effort over years of time, and so it's a shame that here the resultant stunning visuals are in service of a clichéd and mawkish story. And I like sentimental - but this was too much. There's charm, for sure, and everyone loves a cute talking animal, but the anthropomorphism treads well-worn paths and the plot feels like several of the original books smooshed together. We watched it with Z (whose choice it was) and I'm pleased we did something together, but it's a kid's film, with simplistic ideas and predictable results. A miss (although for some reason, the critics loved it, according to Wikipedia, which baffles me).

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (2019)

Things I thought I knew about Linda Ronstadt before I watched this: she was spectacularly pretty and she sang country rock in the 70s. Well, I wasn't wrong about either of those things, but that represents a very small fraction of the overall picture. I hadn't realised what a huge star she was in the US, what a variety of music she recorded, or quite how good a singer she is - the few songs I knew don't really show her range - or, most importantly, how she carved her own way through a rampantly sexist music business for decades. I've listened to some of her albums since and while none of it particularly grabs me, there's no denying how good she is. Consider me educated!

The Adam Project (2022)

Fairly standard time travel film, enlivened by Ryan Reynolds. Good fun.

Doctor Strange (2016)

I fancied re-watching this for some reason - probably not seen it since around when it came out.  Watched it with Z (who needed little persuading) as preparation for the sequel. It's fairly typical Marvel fare of course - too much action and not enough plot - but enjoyable nonsense. I don't understand why they made Benedict Cumberbatch do a very average American accent when it would have made no difference to the plot to have him use his own, though.

Reading - April 2025

Backtrack by Tessa Niles (2015)

Tessa Niles might not be a household name, but if you come from the generation of music fans that reads credits on albums or CD booklets (I assume this basically excludes anyone under about forty) then there's a good chance you'll have seen the name - and given her incredible list of credits, you will definitely have heard her. The physical book feels like it's a print-on-demand copy (I bought it on Amazon so it's possible) and I can't quite decide whether Panoma Press are a vanity publisher or not; the writing style is a bit Mills & Boon and could definitely have done with better editing in places. But that said it does come across as her genuine voice rather than a bland ghost written account - and I found it very readable and enjoyable.

Beserker! by Adrian Edmondson (2023)

This had been recommended in various places, and despite the fact that the only bits of Edmondson's output from the last 40+ years that I'm familiar with is The Young Ones (which I haven't seen since it was originally broadcast) and vaguely remembered bits of The Dangerous Brothers ("dangerous!") from Saturday Live, it was worth reading. He's an honest and relatable companion and it's refreshing to hear the trials and effort involved in what could appear, to an outsider, like a comfortable life in entertainment.

The Perfectly Dressed Gentleman by Robert O'Byrne (2011)

I found this on the book exchange shelves at work, and it looks like a Christmas stocking filler; slim, but a hardback, with a slightly novelty integrated bookmark. But it's surprisingly full of information.

Paradise Valley by Robyn Carr (2009)

Forbidden Falls by Robyn Carr (2010)

Angel's Peak by Robyn Carr (2010)

These next three books in the Virgin River series seem to have randomly assigned titles representing places that are literally never mentioned anywhere, but they are decent, readable and enjoyable stories that get you involved and wanting to know how things work out - not just whether they will work out (obviously they will). There are more and more secondary characters turning up and they have their own arcs too. Perfect bedtime reading.

White Heat by Dominic Sandbrook (2006)

A hugely impressive and authoritative history of mid-to-late sixties Britain. It takes a history with this kind of perspective, the kind only afforded by time, shorn of bias and with the egos long eroded, to be able to show the real causes and the real effects. Sadly, it also shows that politics hasn't changed, with decisions made in the interests of self or at least, party, heavily overriding any wider concerns. Harold Wilson comes across as an incredible political operator who nevertheless was more focussed on keeping his job than in running the country for everyone's benefit. Opposition parties still grabbed every opportunity to carp and pick holes instead of behaving like adults. It also shows the impact one determined person can have, usually for the worse - whether that's Mary Whitehouse, Enoch Powell or Ian Paisley (all of whom claimed to be speaking on behalf of a silent majority that didn't exist). Sandbrook's summary (if you can summarise anything as complex as this) - that Britain wasn't swinging or in fact vastly transformed in any ways other than by the normal march of time - is sane and rational and a deliberate counterpoint to those who might try to twist the evidence to suit their own prejudices. Politicians were still politicians and people were still people. Still, it's great to have this kind of history to read and I've come away vastly better informed. I'm looking forward to the next books, which cover the times during which I was actually alive. I might give myself a bit of a break first though!

Screenwriting for Dummies by Laura Schellhardt (2008)

I picked this up ages ago in a charity shop because I thought it would give a good insight into screenwriting (and as a more practical counterpoint to William Goldman's peerless Adventures in the Screen Trade). Well, it was interesting but I didn't find it compelling: it's taken me over two years to finish it! There's lot of good advice here but neither does it shy away from making it clear that there's a huge effort involved. That's true of everything worth doing, of course, but it's probably killed any faint fantasy that I might try my hand at it!

Paper Cuts by Ted Kessler (2022)

Despite being the last editor of Q magazine before it folded, Ted Kessler describes himself as essentially being an NME writer - and even if he hadn't, his off-hand dismissal of Q as "smug, self-congratulatory, purposely fogey" would give him away. But I loved magazines like it and Word, and would say it was ironic, with a keen sense of the innate ridiculousness of much of the music industry. By contrast, the weekly inkies always had the breathless, over-excited feel of a bunch of teenagers seduced by the myths of rock 'n' roll and unable or unwilling to see past them, and Kessler sounds like he fit in exactly. The monthlies were clearly dying long before he arrived to oversee their last days and I'd ducked out years before. All of which is a long way of saying that I've never read or even come across Ted Kessler before, and in any case, I probably wouldn't have had much time for him. Which is my loss, because he's a really good writer, not just when he's being self-deprecatory about his younger self's misadventures, but about the music that's inspired him. This took me a solid day to read and was never less than entertaining and often insightful.

Promise Canyon by Robyn Carr (2011)

Some sort of horse whisperer thing going on here, and a mild tribute to Native American traditions, but otherwise pretty much exactly the same as the others in this series - which is to say, a satisfying but maybe slightly forgettable romance.

Pick of Punch (1991) edited by David Thomas (1991)

I found a couple of these in a charity book shop (in a National Trust property) and couldn't resist adding to my little collection - I now have five. Yet now I've read it, I'm not sure why I bother. It's the penultimate annual from the "proper" run of Punch (the 1996 re-launch under Mohamed Al-Fayed doesn't count) and by this point it feels like it's trying to emulate Private Eye in a bid to recapture readers - and it's not working. Too much is just not funny. Add in a couple of execrable Richard Littlejohn pieces that would be rejected these days by the Daily Wail for being overly reactionary, and what you have a is a museum piece with a few gently amusing cartoons. Still, it didn't cost much (and the money went to good cause) and didn't take long to read.

Watching - March 2025

Titanic (1997)

I've always found this film fascinating, but I'm not sure I can explain why. It's spectacular still, even on a small screen, and the story at its centre is affecting despite being hokey teen angst. I don't really subscribe to the idea of "guilty pleasures" (at least not with respect to mainstream films or music, if you get off on puppy snuff flicks then you definitely have a guilty pleasure) but this comes close as I feel vaguely embarrassed about liking it.

The Good Place (seasons 1-4, 2016-2020)

I fancied watching this again and once I'd started, I binged right through it (my kids are very proud of me). It's ideal for this, for me - nice short episodes, funny but not too silly, and has a definite ending that isn't delayed too long (four seasons is entirely reasonable). The original concept is brilliant, of course, and if it gets a little lost around the middle of season two and beginning of season three, then it's still funny and once the end is in sight, it has a clear message that I like and found touching all over again.

The Incredibles (2004)

Something reminded me that I hadn't watched this for absolutely ages, so I got to enjoy it all over again. Great stuff. I also love the way the short that goes with it (Jack Jack Attack) links in with the events of the main film.

Incredibles 2 (2018)

Well, I had to watch the second one. Not quite as memorable as the first but entertainingly over-the-top. And the short (Auntie Edna) is great too.

Virgin River (season 1, 2019)

Just so we're clear, objectively, this is melodramatic rubbish - and I knew it would be before I started watching it. But I thought I'd try it, since I've been enjoying the books so much. Of course there are differences, but that's OK - mostly. The novels have many recurring characters and story arcs that cross from one book to another, but the main relationship in each book has a definite beginning, a middle and, crucially, a happy ending. I can't stress how important this is. The TV series doesn't do this, and so, for me, breaks a fundamental contract with the viewer. I'm sure eventually the main characters do get together but I'm not prepared to be teased and tantalised forever with a "will they, won't they" story line, so I'm out.

Le Mans '66 (2019)

A great story, well told. Can't say fairer than that!