Life after Life
by Kate Atkinson (Penguin, 2013)
audiobook read by Fenella Woolgar (Bolinda, 2014)
A long novel that does justice to its historical setting and characters but not the speculative premise (little more than an excuse to include multiple draft chapters). The whole of Ursula’s existence amounts to no more than the sum of its parts.
Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron
ed. Jonathan Strahan (Random House, 2012)
audiobook read by Katherine Fenton & Jay Villiers (AudioGO, 2012)
Seventeen mostly YA tales at the borderline between long short story and novelette (plus a token Neil Gaiman poem) offering imaginative takes on the witchy theme. Unfortunately, very few repay their length. Charles de Lint, Tim Pratt and Margo Lanagan stand out.
Jessica Jones, Season Two
(Netflix, 2018)
Without a villain of David Tennant’s inner intensity, Season Two isn’t quite sure what to do with itself. The episode lengths afford time for character development, yet this aspect devolves into a relentless near-farce of about-facing. Krysten Ritter still makes it worthwhile.
The Professionals #10: Cry Wolf
by Ken Blake (Sphere, 1981)
Robert Holdstock’s first shot at writing under the Ken Blake pseudonym. Holdstock’s prose is a step down from Kenneth Bulmer’s, and his episode balance is lopsided, over-novelising the first story while letting the second crash and burn in a wretchedly perfunctory ending.
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
by Ed Yong (Bodley Head, 2022); audiobook read by Ed Yong (Vintage Digital, 2022)
Comprehensive, accessible non-fiction. Yong invites us to imagine umwelts (unique sensory experiences) outside of our own, learning from biologists and drawing insights from the myriad ways (to our eyes often thoroughly alien) that other creatures physically decode and relate to the world.
Doctor Who: The Hoxteth Time Capsule
by Paul Davis; read by Colin Baker (Big Finish, 2023)
A neat enough premise but vague and unfocussed, with middling prose, a deus ex machina and exposition up the wazoo. The Doctor’s involvement is murky, his mission to Rajasthan making little sense given how he came upon George in the first place.
Wicked Little Letters
dir. Thea Sharrock (2023)
Though tending to emphasise its absurdities, this dark comedy stays close to true events and presents a quite horrifying portrayal of intra-war, small-town religious prejudice and highhanded patriarchal injustice. The mostly female cast are all excellent, especially Anjana Vasan and Jessie Buckley.
Henrietta Who?
by Catherine Aird (Doubleday, 1968)
audiobook read by Robin Bailey (Bolinda, 2014)
A streamlined narrative whose drollness of dialogue Aird elucidates on the fly. Though the mystery doesn’t outstay its welcome, Henrietta’s lament rather does (“She’s not my mother!”). The focus on legitimacy, though period appropriate, seems oddly old-fashioned given the book’s publication date.
Vera, Series 8
(ITV, 2018)
Vera has by now lost almost all her prickliness, deploying instead a matronly empathy (though also a tendency towards gleeful sly cunning). The four feature-length murder investigations work well enough, though again with absolutely everyone even peripherally involved determined to hide something.
Jesus Christ Superstar
dir. Norman Jewison (1973)
A feature-film, multiracial, hippie-toked, death-hallucinatory reenvisaging of the musical, set in the deserts of 1970s Israel and Palestine. Carl Anderson emerges unscathed as Judas. Most bizarre scene: Josh Mostel (King Herod) busting out moves that Mike Myers would channel for Austin Powers.