I have decided to start posting my Miscellanies as and when they are of sufficient length, rather than waiting to the end of the month; the latter practice has resulted in some absurdly long entries. A very interesting article by John Sutherland in The Times on October 2nd. Formerly I would merely have directed readers …
Category: mysteries
January 2010 Miscellany
A substantial change to the way in which my life is organised, and especially the time I have available, took place this month when, to my considerable surprise, I was elected Chairperson of the Birmingham LINk (an organisation which seeks to improve the provision of Health and Social Care in Birmingham). I now have to …
October Miscellany (2009)
Continuing with Caryl Churchill I reached Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1977). I thought from the title that this was likely to be among my favourite of Churchill's plays and so it proved. Using her ensemble techniques she covers the radicalization, and then the confrontation with and suppression of the radicals, which occurred during the course of …
J.I.M. Stewart – Myself and Michael Innes
J.I.M. Stewart – Myself and Michael Innes (1987) This book is subtitled A Memoir, which is certainly a far more suitable description than auto-biography. Indeed it is short on some basic biographical facts which can more easily be picked up from Wikipedia. Stewart was born in 1906 in Edinburgh, where he attended the Edinburgh Academy, before …
June Miscellany (2009)
A scanty month dominated by another bout of Depression. In fact a week of recovery at the beginning June has only punctuated an episode which began in May and from which I am far from recovered. The problem in writing about Depression is that it is miserably re-iterative, solipsistic and impossible to make interesting. Depression …
May Miscellany
Let's start with the best. May was a remarkable month for original television films featuring two absolute gems, and what is more gems of completely different kinds. I have already written about Compulsion (see blog of 14th May); here I turn my attention to The Unloved co-written and directed by Samantha Morton and screened on Channel …
The Tiger in the Smoke
Margery Allingham's The Tiger in the Smoke (1952) is not only one of her greatest books, and possibly her best, but one of the true masterpieces of British mystery fiction. It is one of those books to which I am always somewhat nervous to return in case in should prove that my memory has played me false, that …
April Miscellany (2009)
A documentary film first. Afghan Star directed by Havana Marking, which won a prize at the 2009 Sundance Festival, told the extraordinary story of the introduction of an American Idol/X-Factor type show in Afghanistan. Music was banned by the Taliban and the producers of the show (Afghan Star) obviously faced considerable problems when they decided to …
QDL on DLS
It was at St Hilda's 2007 (see https://movingtoyshop.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/st-hildas-2007/ ) that I heard Jill Paton Walsh discuss Q.D.Leavis's attack on Dorothy L. Sayers and I have been meaning to find the article ever since; finally I got myself into Birmingham Central Library and obtained the relevant volume of Scrutiny - it is Volume 6, Number 3 (December …
March Music, Movies, Mysteries
A few miscellaneous March events. First the musical. A stupendous performance of Britten's War Requiem at Symphony Hall by the The Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus. Everything about this was terrific; the conducting by Antonio Pappano, the soloists Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside and Emma Bell, the choral singing and, above all of course, the …
Moving Toyshop 