The Castle of Adventure
by Enid Blyton (Macmillan, 1946)
audiobook read by Thomas Judd (Hodder, 2018)
Another jolly dose of supercilious British youngsters lording it over the world around them. (One wonders what is to become of Button the fox cub and the Gypsy girl Tassie.) Dinah and Lucy-Ann are particularly wet this book. Kiki remains a highlight.
The Green Mill Murder
by Kerry Greenwood (McPhee Gribble, 1993)
audiobook read by Stephanie Daniel (ABC Audio, 2012)
While the mystery in this instance is nigh on non-existent, Phryne and the murderer make their dual entrance on page one and the book proceeds apace, endearing itself to aficionados of early 20th-century Australian culture and showcasing Greenwood’s research of the period.
Foundation
by Isaac Asimov (Gnome Press, 1951); audiobook read by William Hope (HarperCollins, 2019)
A collected sequence of SF novellas taking inspiration from the fall of the Roman Empire. Asimov’s ideas aren’t without interest but the prose is workmanlike and the characters little more than mouthpieces. The future, apparently, contains infinitely more expository speechmaking than women.
Blackadder: The Cavalier Years
by Richard Curtis & Ben Elton; dir. Mandie Fletcher (BBC, 1988)
This 15-minute Comic Relief special is by far the best of the Blackadder one-offs. Though Stephen Fry’s King Charles is a bit laboured, Rowan Atkinson plays Blackadder Version 2.5 with sardonic, simile-prone precision, ably supported by Tony Robinson as the dogsbody Baldrick.
Classic Albums: Meat Loaf, Bat out of Hell
dir. Bob Smeaton (BBC, 1999)
An hour-long documentary charting the creative origins of ‘Bat out of Hell’, corporate resistance to its release, and the bumpy highway ridden to promote the album. Todd Rundgren’s contribution is acknowledged but otherwise the analysis is facile, yielding to extensive musical excerpts.
The Belly of the Bow
by K J Parker (Orbit, 1999)
The Fencer Trilogy’s second instalment proves even bleaker and more cynical than the first. Estranged brothers Bardas and Gorgas Loredan struggle towards victories most decidedly Pyrrhic, the narrative sustained by Parker’s commitment to portraying human foibles and stark, unglorified realism within fantasy.
Malta Story
dir. Brian Desmond Hurst (1953)
A verisimilitudinous war story filmed only a decade after the events it portrays, and incorporating archival combat footage. Alec Guinness plays a placidly stiff-upper-lipped archaeologist turned reconnaissance pilot, doing his bit even while falling in love, one wistful eye to the future.
Agatha Christie: First Lady of Crime
ed. H.R.F. Keating (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977)
A collection of essays written shortly after Christie’s death, investigating aspects of her life and works and postulating reasons for her success. The authors are admiring but not uncritical, and in many cases were practitioners within the genre. Chummy scholarship, gently enlightening.
The Camera Never Lies: A Book of Extraordinary and Bizarre Photographs
trans. Keith Cameron; foreword by Cyril Fletcher (Webb & Bower, 1982)
A collection of black-and-white photographs from the early 1900s, mostly of French origin, with descriptions written as if contemporaneously. Many of the images are eye-catching; all are faded (reflecting the 1980s publishing date, pre- digital enhancement). The preserved hodgepodge of yesteryear twice-removed.
Blazing Saddles
dir. Mel Brooks (1974)
Brooks crafts a comedy layered with tasteless caricatures; over-the-top expectation gags; cringingly, affectedly b-grade acting (Gene Wilder proving the exception); brash, almost surreal anachronisms; and flights of lunacy that blast beyond the fourth wall. Uproarious in parts, baffling and indefensible in others.