Well, 2016 has been rubbish, but let's try and pick out some more positive things from the year:

• Fiction - Doctor Who - Shada, by Gareth Roberts / Douglas Adams
• Non-Fiction - 1946 - The Making of the Modern World, by Victor Sebestyen
• Music - Prom 51 - the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop
• Museums and Exhibitions - Museum of the Americas in ( Read more... )

Most of the spoiler-free comment I've seen has been very complimentary about Rogue One; I'm afraid I found it adequate but uninspiring. ( Spoilers )

Last night we went to Reading Film Theatre to see The Commune. It's quite a while since I have been; the programmes have been quite variable in the past few years. For a while it seemed not much different to the multiplexes, though cheaper and a few months behind. The lecture theatre has been refurbished and the prices have gone up, but it's still ( Read more... )

Best of the year:

• Fiction - The Merchants of Light - A Novel of Venice, by Marta Maretich
• Non-Fiction - The Cucumber for Java Book, by Seb Rose, Matt Wynne, and Aslak Hellesøy
• Music - Prom 28 - The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee, and The Poem of Ecstasy
• Museums and Exhibitions - Escher at Dulwich Picture Gallery
• Food and ( Read more... )

Several weeks ago Mrs Q asked: Did I want to go and see the new Star Wars film? Yes, I did. I expected it would be on for ages, and we would go sometime after Christmas, but then I was told we had tickets for the 17th December.

I enjoyed it; not as much as my favourite in the series, The Empire Strikes Back, and possibly not as much as Star Wars ( Read more... )

An interlude in the Sibelius cycle on Sunday afternoon was the Sherlock Holmes Prom. The seats were quite full, but the arena had plenty of space (and in fact although I was about half way back, only about 10% of the Prommers stayed for the evening concert, in which I got to the second row). There were a few fans wearing deerstalkers, but I managed ( Read more... )

Reading Film Theatre was busier than I have seen it for a long time yesterday evening, when I went to see Mr Turner. Timothy Spall gives the title role character though not really charm, with little in the way of dialogue but much in the way of grunts. The film starts in the middle, I think, as Turner returns to London from a trip to the ( Read more... )

Best of the year:

• Fiction - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John Le Carré
• Non-Fiction - Continuous Delivery, by David Farley and Jez Humble
• Music - Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela and Fifth Symphony at the Proms
• Museums and Exhibitions - The Baths of Caracalla in Rome
• Food and Drink - Barbakan in York

Book Review: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John Le CarréIt is several years (possibly almost 20) since I last read this book; certainly I haven't read it since I saw the 2011 film and probably not since I watched the BBC adaptation either. As a long-term project I've been reading the Smiley novels in chronological order. I know the story by now ( Read more... )

Last night we went to Reading Film Theatre to see Ida. Set in Poland in 1962, it is the story of Ida, an orphan who has been brought up in a convent. Prior to taking her vows, she is instructed to visit her aunt, who has previously declined to be involved in her upbringing. It turns out that her aunt was a judge in the Communist regime, and that ( Read more... )