Two more short Turgenev novels, included in one volume, both very good indeed. Rudin is the tale of an idealist young talker who inspires love in the young Natasha, but when it comes to a question of action (eloping with her in the face of her mother's disapproval) fails both Natasha and herself. The intensely moving, …
Three February Movies
Three fairly quick movie reports as I don't have much time these days. Easily the best both in terms of quality and enjoyment was Godard's Une Femme est Une Femme (1961) ; well that almost goes without saying. Godard's third film and his first in colour it is, by his standards, a lighthearted, even frothy …
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 …
Some thoughts on Kane
Embarking on an Orson Welles programme I have started chronologically, which means of course Citizen Kane (1941). There are a couple of major problems with this. In the first place the rest of the programme, whatever delights and treasures it contains, is inevitably something of an anti-climax, a disappointment, a slide. Would it have been …
Blawn’s Britain
9th July 2007 For anyone foolish enough to believe that the substitution of Brown for Blair would make any difference to the ideological tenor of the Government today's (8.07.07) Times front-page supplies an instant corrective. The latest subject to be introduced into classrooms is 'lessons in money'. Ed Balls, the Schools Minister' said 'Money plays …
Election Lack-of-Fever 2005 (OP)
This one is especially interesting given I will be facing the same choices in a few months time. April 14th 2005 It is very hard to avoid falling into the pit of world-weary cynicism and apathy when confronted with the 2005 election. The mood for many on the left is perhaps best caught by the …
Lock ’em Up (OP)
19th November 2007 Way back in August - yes I know its a long time ago - an extraordinary column appeared in The Times by one Theodore Dalrymple. Britain - which already imprisons more of its population than anywhere else in Europe (except Portugal for some reason) needs to 'double the number of prisons at …
Class Divisions (OP)
18th December 2007 Sometimes articles which are just so damned good they demand reproducing on any blog going, get posted on one of the lists. This, like most of the best, was posted to WWTTA. >>CEOs vs. Slaves By Barbara Ehrenreich, AlterNet. Posted May 31, 2007. Recent findings shed new light on the increasingly unequal …
Pilgrimage Books 1-3 (OP)
3rd August 2007 Unusually this is a fairly straight reproduction of a list post - in this case to WWTTA on the subject of Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage Books 1-3 (Volume 1). I have put it here in addition partly because I have found the book so fascinating and partly because I have tried in this …
Friday Night Lights (OP)
8th March 2007 Friday Night Lights is an American TV series which started airing in the US in October 2006. It has been showing in the UK on ITV4 for the past three weeks. I wanted to write about it now because my feeling is that the extraordinary originality of the first couple of episodes will …
Moving Toyshop 