Category Archives: Review

Book Review: Vince Hilaire (and Tom Maslona) ~ Vince: The autobiography of Vince Hilaire

Posted on April 3, 2018 by

He was an outstanding athlete excelling in cricket where he played at Essex Schoolboy level, which was dominated by those that were being privately educated (it still is). A black working-class boy from east London was as rare as hens … Continue reading →

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Film Review ~ Red Sparrow (Jennifer Lawrence)

Posted on March 27, 2018 by

Red Sparrow is a tour de force for Jennifer Lawrence. Red Sparrow is set in a Russia which hasn’t acknowledged that the Cold War has ended. All the familiar tropes are hard at work. There are assassins (Yes- pre-Salisbury), and … Continue reading →

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Book Review : Paul Murray ~ The Mark and the Void

Posted on March 20, 2018 by

Paul Murray has written a beautiful satire on the 2008 financial crash. He sets his book in Dublin, which was a ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy, which seemed to reinvent banking and economics. Another example of millenial insanity was Iceland, which has … Continue reading →

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Film Review ~ I, Tonya (Margot Robbie and Allison Janney)

Posted on March 13, 2018 by

Allison Janney (LaVonna Fay Golden) rightly won the 2018 best supporting actor Oscar for a stunning performance throughout I, Tonya. She’s the horror show mother of Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) who’s been cultivated since early childhood to be a champion … Continue reading →

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Book Review: George MacDonald Fraser ~ Flashman at the Charge

Posted on February 27, 2018 by

The Flashman series is twelve books long. They were very popular in the 1970s but have faded with time. This review is therefore a review of a re-read. How does it stand up to the expectations of a former devotee? … Continue reading →

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Film Review ~ Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf)

Posted on February 20, 2018 by

Lady Bird is a coming-of-age film with the angst of mother and daughter extremely well done. The daughter is the underachieving ‘Lady Bird’, who’s renamed herself. She’s stuck in a Catholic school in Sacramento, California. She’s dissatisfied. The school is … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Boris Akunin ~ The Coronation (Translated by Andrew Bromfield)

Posted on February 13, 2018 by

Boris Akunin is Russia’s top-selling thriller writer. He writes historical mystery novels which are securely placed within a factual context. This one in his in Erast Fandorin series and is loosely in the Sherlock Holmes genre. It has wit, intelligence, … Continue reading →

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