As regular readers know, the Holocaust is one of my special interests. I’ve read a lot of books – memoir, history, and fiction – set in the period of Nazi rule. The stories of survivors will always move me and books such as Elie Wiesel’s testimony Night and Martin Gilbert’s The Boys…
The Reader
27 January 2016 by 2 Comments
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, a time to remember the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust and all of the victims of Nazi persecution, subsequent genocides, and discrimination today. I urge everyone to visit the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and Holocaust Educational Trust…
2016 Classics Challenge – The Book Thief
25 January 2016 by Leave a Comment
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was taking part in the 2016 Classics Challenge and that I would try to ensure that one book a month would be a “classic” – however classic is defined. The first book I’ve chosen is The Book Thief, the Markus Zusak novel…
Top Ten: 1997 Films
24 June 2015 by Leave a Comment
A couple of years ago I listed my Top Ten films from 2001, a post that was inspired by a Facebook discussion. As I’ve not been making it to the cinema as often as I’d life recently, I’ve decided to repeat the exercise for a few different years – it might even come to be a series as I approach my 40th birthday…
Hitler’s Forgotten Children
8 June 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Nazi obsession with racial purity is well known; their goal of an Aryan master race and their racial policies led to the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust and the targeting of other racial and religious groups including Black Germans, gypsies, and physically and mentally disabled people…
Jakob’s Colours
20 April 2015 by Leave a Comment
Regular readers will know that I have an especial interest in the Holocaust and genocide. I’ve been lucky enough to work in Holocaust remembrance and with Holocaust and genocide survivors. I’m not an expert by any means but even though I’ve moved on from that job I’m still fascinated by stories of the Holocaust…
Look Who’s Back
2 April 2014 by Leave a Comment
When I’m reading a book for review or watching a film I usually have a good idea at about the midway point what my rating will be. Sometimes that changes – when I was watching Dark Shadows for example my patience got thinner as the film progressed and I started knocking points off its rating because it was becoming increasingly annoying. Usually though my gut reaction wins…
Parallel Lines
5 March 2014 by Leave a Comment
It’s a sad but inevitable fact that the number of Holocaust survivors with us is dwindling each year. Just a week ago Alice Herz-Sommer, the subject of this year’s Oscar winning short documentary “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” passed away at the age of 110. It is now more important than ever that as many people as possible read the testimony of survivors…
The Book Thief
27 February 2014 by 2 Comments
There’s always a real sense of trepidation when going to see a film adaptation of a book that you truly love (see my thoughts on Les Miserables for proof that this isn’t confined just to books, but musicals too). It’s almost inevitable that any great book will eventually reach the screen…
The Book Thief Trailer
21 August 2013 by Leave a Comment
The first trailer for the film adaptation of Markus Zusak’s brilliant The Book Thief has been released. As my review explains, I love The Book Thief. It is one of the few books released in the past decade that I would call a true classic and I’m evangelical about getting as many people to read it as possible…