Last year at Raindance the short Balkan film strand drew both praise and criticism, particularly for the inclusion of A Serbian Film which horrified many viewers with its graphic scenes and distasteful plot. The controversy hasn’t put the Festival off the promotion of Balkan cinema…
Archives for September 2011
Vote for October’s #BookTwub Choice
29 September 2011 by Leave a Comment
Hopefully everyone has really enjoyed The Book Thief, it’s one of my favourite books of the past few years and I’m really looking forward to the discussion. As with all books that I love I feel quite evangelical about persuading everyone to get hold of a copy…
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Trailer
29 September 2011 by 7 Comments
It’s been a few years since I read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It’s a book that I enjoyed while reading, but it hasn’t particularly stayed with me. I read it, liked it, moved on. It had totally left my radar until I saw the trailer….
#BookTwub 1 – The Book Thief Discussion Points
29 September 2011 by Leave a Comment
The Book Thief is the first book chosen for #BookTwub, the new Twitter book club. I picked it partly because it is a book that I loved as soon as I read it and wanted to share with people…
The Book Thief
29 September 2011 by Leave a Comment
When I was planning the first meeting of #BookTwub, the new Twitter based book club, I knew I wanted a novel that was powerful, popular and would appeal to a wide audience. It seemed obvious to me fairly quickly that The Book Thief was the perfect choice…
Interview – Raindance Founder, Elliot Grove
28 September 2011 by Leave a Comment
The Raindance Film Festival starts today in London and I’m delighted that Elliot Grove, founder of the festival, took some time out of his extremely busy schedule to speak to me…
Another Earth
28 September 2011 by 2 Comments
Every now and again a film comes along which you know will stay with you for a long time. It doesn’t happen very often. I love movies but in a fun, disposable, forgettable way. When I saw Another Earth I was left with a tingle up and down my spine …
Maybe This Time
27 September 2011 by 1 Comment
When the Kindle and other e-readers first came on the scene I proudly shunned them. Nothing would ever better the feeling of having a real book in your hands and the happy sight of a full bookshelf. Then I got my iPad, downloaded the Kindle App and all my high-minded objections to e-readers were forgotten…
The A-Team
26 September 2011 by
They say that you always remember your first love. I know I certainly do. I was young and impressionable. Easily won over by a handsome man with bags of style. He was older, much older actually. A former soldier…
Top Ten: Classic Books I’ve Never Read
23 September 2011 by 7 Comments
Every so often a new list of the 100 “best” books is released. The most recent is World Book Night’s Top 100 and others include the BBC Big Read and the Telegraph’s Top 100. To an extent these lists are popularity contests and many of the choices will change from year to year…