How to Grow Old Disgracefully: An Autobiography, by Hermione Gingold If you’re a fan of classic films, say, Vincente Minnelli’s 1958 musical, Gigi, or classic stagings of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, you already know Hermione Gingold, the earthy actress with the husky voice and wicked sense of irony. Otherwise, […]
Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray The early nineteenth century didn’t have reality television, but it did have William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair—and if you’re in need of a novel to escape into, this is the one. Vanity Fair is a classic of social-climbing, backbiting, profligate behavior, and true love. […]
Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? Paul Cornell Pan Books Release Date: May 19, 2016 ISBN 978-1-4472-7326-4 London detectives James Quill, Tony Costain and Kevin Sefton, and analyst Lisa Ross form a unique team; they have been “gifted” with the Sight – the ability to see the hidden, supernatural side of London. […]
The first episode of Neverwhere, the BBC 4 radio play starring James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch and a cast of British luminaries, is now available for streaming on the BBC 4 website. Based on the best-seller from Sandman creator Neil Gaiman, an act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his […]
From i09: The Doctor has battled Daleks, Cybermen, rogue Time Lords, and even farting aliens. But can he handle the nightmare that is the U.K. postal system? From BBC News: Tom Baker, David Tennant and Patrick Troughton are to feature on a special set of Royal Mail stamps in 2013. […]
Or is that just us? From Joanna Robinson with pajiba.com: It’s not very classy for a film & TV blogger to lose their sh*t over a piece of trade news the way I did earlier today. But damn me if the existence of a new radio play of Neil Gaiman’s […]
On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.