How to survive Droughtlander: Watch Something Else
(and Treat Yourself to Some Great British Drama in the Process) One of the easiest ways to wean yourself away from watching Outlander on a constant loop for the next few months is to check out some other great TV programmes that might take your mind of Outlander – at least for a while! Poldark […]
Continue readingMY Comic Life – Mugger Destroying Mothers, Proud Scottish Fathers, Delusion & Outlander
In comedy you tend to exaggerate for comedic effect. However, when it comes to my parents, if anything, I underplay it. If I saw my father and mother depicted on TV, I’d roll my eyes and think it a terrible, clichéd portrayal of a pair of Scots. I then would have to do a double […]
Continue readingOutlander Season Two – A Romance for Grown Ups
It only really hit home just how obsessed I’d become with Outlander when I found myself re-watching the DVD extras from the first season at 4 in the morning, sampling the delights of the featurette: The Making of the Kilt. This was despite having been bored stiff watching it the first time round. It was […]
Continue readingFilm Review: Pride
With the NHS currently under attack and junior doctors forced to go on strike, I thought I’d take a look at Pride, a recent British film set during the crushing of the miners’ strike and which examines the importance of unions and solidarity even with the most unlikely of partners! Pride joins a select group […]
Continue readingMY Travels – MY Cheap and Cheerful Guide to London
Getting Here If you are fortunate enough to live in a country where public transport has not yet been privatised, and you have any doubts as to why privatising public transport is such a bad idea, then welcome to Britain. It should in fact be compulsory for any foreign politician, who is foolhardy enough to […]
Continue readingBook Review: A Spool of Blue Thread – Anne Tyler
I read A Spool of Blue Thread at someone else’s suggestion. I had no idea what the book was about. Moreover, as an inveterate reader of German literature, I’d never heard of the author, Anne Tyler. I picked up the book, thinking to myself this is so not the type of book I would read. […]
Continue readingBook Review: Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Forget the Hollywood image of the monster with bolts in his neck, Frankenstein, written by the then 18 year old Mary Shelley, is an intriguing read as well as a morality tale, still as relevant for today, if not more so. Within Shelley’s tale of Victor Frankenstein who creates a being that turns into a […]
Continue readingForeign Book Review: Short Stories – Nikolai Gogol
Fancy some surreal satire? Then Gogol might just be for you. Often when you think of 19th century Russian literature you think of worthy tomes which you suspect might be rather heavy going. However the short stories of Gogol are a delight, of manageable size and definitely worth a read! As someone who has a […]
Continue readingFilm Review: Casablanca
What makes a film a classic? In a nutshell it’s a film that you don’t mind seeing again and again; you can probably hum music featured in the movie, albeit most likely out of tune, and you can at least quote several of the lines. Casablanca fits easily into this classification. Even people who haven’t […]
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