Pun based title, when I think of one

It's been a gap of many years since I last read a book by Keith Waterhouse , and it took a very long time, and the invention of the internet, for me to track down The Bucket Shop . It was his fourth novel, dating from maybe not long after he left Leeds and fetched up in London. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but it's a very used paperback, and not only features stains on many pages, but on one, what looks like a deeply embedded insect wing. I was misled by the title. I thought a 'bucket shop' - a phrase from another age - meant one of those cheap travel agencies. No, here, it's simply a junk shop. William , the central character, wanted to be an antique dealer, but doesn't know his trade, and is clueless about business basics. So, his shop sells odds and ends, mostly at a loss. His only regular 'customer' appears to be a photographer we know only as Pringle , who owes him quite a sum, for items he's rented as props for his wo...

I wouldn't have felt the need to introduce  Keith Waterhouse  in my student days. Back then, he could scarcely have been more omnipresent, as a writer. His scriptwriting , with Willis Hall and others, was all over London's West End theatre land, as well as television. In fact, only 3/4 years ago I enjoyed a production of one of his best known plays, Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell , by a rep company locally. He was a giant of journalism , as a columnist for the Daily Mirror and later the Daily Mail. Though not listed below, there are half a dozen published collections of his newspaper pieces. And he wrote 17 novels (I'm including the two Pooter books in this regard). But when he died in 2009, while he received many respectful tributes, it didn't make the waves it would have done even only a few years previously. His books were already hard to find, even in one of the larger Waterstones. I suspect he's been branded a man of his time, meaning the Sixties, as far as novels ...

A Question of Integrity by Susan Howatch  tells the story of Alice, a young woman who has experienced only disappointment and reached a very low point, who finds kindness and then hope in a Christian community centred on a London church and healing centre. It's led by a charismatic preacher with some special gifts; Alice fixates on him and develops an unhealthy obsession which she finds it hard to come to terms with, until the end of the novel. Nicholas the preacher is a problematic character, both as a type, and as the crux of the story. His gifts, which are described variously in terms of magnetism, healing and hypnosis, have a dark side, and it is his use of those gifts which raise the question of integrity in the book's title. A Question of Integrity  is very different indeed from the genres I usually read. It was a personal gift, and that entered into my attitude to the book. Perhaps I'm implying that I might otherwise have left it alone, or given it up. I don...

Let's start with cards. Christmas cards . For information, I make a list each year, and end up giving or sending around 70 cards, to family and various groups of friends from past and present. I keep up with who I'm not hearing from, who I'm still in touch with, that sort of thing. But the stat I want to mention here is one which gives me weird amusement; weird, because it doesn't mean anything. It's to do with the subjects featured on the Christmas cards, and the apparent trends each year. As far as figures go, it's almost always Santa that wins, or else it's the Holy Family. In the objects or symbols category, I noticed quite a few wreaths this year. But the big perennial fascination is animals. I have no idea how fashions or trends would work on this one, all I can say is that it doesn't seem to be utterly random. Some years there really is a predominance of eg. reindeers, others, of robins. As a footnote, when I was checking out the Christmas po...

No, that isn't a spelling mistake. This really is about the Finnish in Blade Runner 2049 . There are a few spoilers in this, nothing big, but you may want to check out now. (NB - 2019 follow up comments in PS down at the bottom) I went to see the film a second time, primarily to immerse myself again in that world. Despite the intensely pessimistic vision it offers, its design and cinematography are wondrous and absorbing and I wanted it all again, while I could still get it on the big screen. And it was a big screen, a bigger and better one in Manchester. I went with a friend, which enabled some lively discussion afterwards. I'm glad to say she liked it too, and made several good points. The main one was about the 'glaring plot hole' towards the end (ie. how does so-and-so know how to find *cough* in order to effect a rescue): something's been cut out there, maybe only a bit of script, but something which might have explained it. There were other reasons t...

I decided to hurry up and see Blade Runner 2049 , once I saw how many pieces are appearing explaining more and more of the plot. Not that anyone's forcing me to read or view those reviews or videos, but just by existing they somehow mess up my anticipation . Am I hypocritically doing the same thing? Well, I'm going to try not to spoil the story. But perhaps what I write here is one of the most redundant offerings to the websphere imaginable; the internet does seem to be flooded with opinions about the film. Which at the very least underlines the place this story has in the culture. Never mind, very few will read this, possibly only the person who prompted me to get my skates on and see it. Just so you know, I saw the original Blade Runner in the cinema at the time of its release. Along with anyone else I knew, I immediately regarded it as the serious science fiction film I'd always wanted; and irrespective of genre, a monumental piece of cinema. I have the five-versio...

Just as the penultimate series of Game of Thrones ends, I want to give a shout out to another, vaguely similar but very different fantasy series from long ago, Hordes of the Things . GoT wasn't a gleam in anyone's eye when this was created, in 1980, but The Lord of the Rings definitely was. Hordes of the Things was a direct parody, in four half hour episodes. It never made much of an impact, partly because a few months later BBC Radio embarked on an ambitious and very successful straight adaptation of Tolkien's saga. As you can see, because here is its cover design, the BBC did release the series on cd, but this had to wait until 2009. Hypocritically, I'm going to recommend it. If you like parodies, humour which is sort of in the same ball park as Hitch-hiker , and scenery chewing of a high order, then this will entertain you. My hypocrisy relates to the fact that I've just recorded it on cd myself. I'm in the middle of another bout of throwing things ...