A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap

by Rob Reiner with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer Sadly, I’ll have to wait until January when the sequel to the best mockumentary ever, Spinal Tap: The End Continues, is available for streaming, it was only on locally during one week and then at odd times. But I was able to console myself Read More

Dear Orson Welles (and other essays) by Mark Cousins

When this thick hardback arrived out of the blue from Irish publisher, The Irish Pages Press, with the most polite review request, I was flattered to be included in this mailing. I’ve been dipping into it over the past few months and enjoying it very much indeed. I do love reading about film in general, Read More

The (Jazz) Baroness by Hannah Rothschild

A couple of weeks ago, I read a novel called Viper’s Dream by Jake Lamar which, in its early 1960s timeline featured ‘Nica’, the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter – a daughter of the Rothschild family who abandoned her Baron diplomat husband for jazz, and specifically bebop pianist and composer Thelonius Monk. Best novel I’ve read Read More

Old colleagues, old friends, old foes

Conflicts of Interest by Terry Stiastny Review & Q&A Terry Stiastny is a former BBC News reporter and she kindly answered some questions for me about her new novel, which follow my review below. I very much enjoyed Terry’s first novel, reviewed here, Acts of Omission is a thoughtful political spy thriller moving between Berlin and Read More