A chronology of the world of “His Dark Materials” and “The Book Of Dust”
May 7th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
If – like me – you’re a fan of Philip Pullman’s world of Lyra Belacqua aka Silvertongue, you might be interested in a chronology of the eight books published so far as part of the extended narrative which covers almost half a century. So I offer you:
“Once Upon A Time In The North” – my review here
“La Belle Sauvage” – my review here
“Northern Lights” – my review here
“The Subtle Knife” – my review here
“The Amber Spyglass” – my review here
“Lyra’s Oxford” – my review here
“Serpentine” – my review here
“The Secret Commonwealth” – my review here
There is ninth novel to come which will follow on from the “The Secret Commonwealth” – but, so far, we do not have a title or publication date.
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Happy 200th birthday to the “Guardian” newspaper
May 5th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
For half a century now, I’ve read the “Guardian” newspaper and, even today, I regularly spend between one and two hours a day devouring its unique curation of stories from the UK and around the world. Its coverage of the coronavirus global pandemic has been outstanding. Most of the time, it reflects – more than any other British newspaper – my social democratic views.
Today the newspaper is 200 year old.
It started in Manchester as a consequence of the Peterloo massacre of 1819. In the intervening 200 years, the “Guardian” has grown from a weekly newspaper serving a few thousand Manchester liberals to a global operation with newsrooms in the UK, US and Australia, tens of millions of regular readers all over the world, and more than 1.5 million supporters in 180 countries.
Together with the “New York Times’ and the “Washington Post”, it is one of the leading English-language newspapers on the globe.
Long may it continue ..
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Was Napoleon a hero or a villain?
May 5th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
If you’ve ever visited Paris, you might have been to Les Invalides and see the tomb of Napoleon. I have never seen a more majestic resting place. But, if you’ve ever visited London, you might have used Waterloo Station or crossed Waterloo Bridge. Both commemorate the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815.
Today is the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoleon on the British-owned island of Saint Helena. How should we remember this controversial figure? On the one hand, he was a brilliant military campaigner who dominated most of Europe and a clever administrative reformer who has left an indelible mark on French. On the other hand, he was an imperialist abroad and a megalomaniac at home and was both a supporter of slavery and a misogynist.
This article is a brief summary of the arguments for and against his greatness, while my book review looks at how Napoleon compares to his nemesis the Duke of Wellington.
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Word of the day: flâneur
May 3rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
A friend used this term today to describe me. I’d never heard of it and had to look it up.
Flâneur is a French term meaning ‘stroller’ used by nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire to identify an observer of modern urban life.
I guess this captures the essence of my Facebook page, especially since I moved to central London two years ago, and most especially during the three lockdowns in London during the coronavirus pandemic.
Posted in Consumer matters, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of the 2013 film “Lone Survivor”
May 3rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
In the summer of 2005, Operation Red Wings was an attempt to take out a Taliban leader in Afghanistan mounted by a team of four Navy SEALs. It is not a spoiler – check out the title of the film – to explain that only one of the SEALs made it alive. He was Marcus Luttrell who in 2007 wrote an account of the operation in a work with a title borrowed by the 2013 film written and directed by Peter Berg. And it is hardly a spoiler to set out that, in the cinematic version of the story, Luttrell is played by the best-known actor in the cast Mark Wahlberg.
Luttrell has been challenged as a not entirely reliable witness and the film is not a straight adaptation of the book, but essentially this is a true story of remarkable heroism. What it lacks in characterisation or plot, it makes up for with blistering action. The only other movie that represents a firefight in such realistic terms is “Black Hawk Down’ which likewise was an American military intervention abroad that went terribly wrong.
Details of Operation Red Wings click here
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A review of the 2014 French film “Gemma Bovery”
April 30th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
In the beginning (1856), there was the classic French novel “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert of which there have been many film versions in French, English and even Hindi. Then, in 1999, there was an English-language graphic novel “Gemma Bovery” by Posy Simmons which reworked the story into a satirical tale of English expatriates in France.
Finally, in 2014, we have a (largely) French-language film version of the novel by Luxembourger director Anne Fontaine. The point of view is that of Martin (Fabrice Luchini), an ex-Parisian with something of an obsession for Gustave Flaubert’s work, who has settled in a village in Normandy as a baker (lots of gorgeous countryside and delicious bread on display). He becomes overly involved in the life of a British couple who have just moved into the village, Charles Bovery (Jason Flemyng) and his bewitchingly beautiful wife Gemma (Gemma Arterton).
The success of the film is due to Arterton’s looks and acting. Originally Fontaine rejected Arterton for the role because the British actor had starred in another film adaptation of a Posy Simmonds graphic novel, “Tamara Drewe” (2010). Also Arterton didn’t speak a word of French when she was cast in the film, but she learned to speak her French lines with the help of her then boyfriend Franklin Ohannessian who also worked on the production.
The story is presented as both comedy and drama which might confuse some viewers, but I loved the movie as an under-appreciated gem (sorry for the pun).
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The joy of writing and the challenge of the short story
April 29th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I’ve always enjoyed writing.
For 59 years now, I’ve kept a daily diary. Some 36 years ago, I even wrote a book: a biography of a Second World War night fighter pilot. I write a lot on my website – especially book reviews and film reviews. But all this is non-fiction: my life, someone else’s life, and other people’s books and films.
Twelve years ago, I wondered if I could write fiction and set out to write a short story or two. In the end, I wrote 31 short stories. Since then, they’ve just been sitting on my website.
But I’ve decided that it might be fun to have these stories collected into a book so, over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy editing and curating the stories. Given the events of the last year, I particularly enjoyed rereading “The Day Of Reckoning”.
You might like to check out some of my stories, maybe starting with the one that I’ve highlighted (remember: it was written in 2010). If, as a result, you think that you’d be interested in the book, just let me know.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
What do you remember about your childhood?
April 28th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I was brought up in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, so I have a particular set of memories.
Do you remember early closing of shops on Wednesday and early release from work on Friday? These days, shops are open all the time and people work all the time.
Do you remember being sent home early from school because of fog, thalidomide babies being born with deformed limbs, or people dying from tuberculosis? Some things have got better.
In fact, I feel that the timing of my birth has led me to be part of a blessed generation, as I explain here.
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Word of the day: synesthesia
April 23rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Synesthesia is an anomalous blending of the senses in which the stimulation of one modality simultaneously produces sensation in a different modality. Synesthetes hear colours, feel sounds and taste shapes.
What makes synesthesia different from drug-induced hallucinations is that synesthetic sensations are highly consistent: for particular synesthetes, the note F is always a reddish shade of rust, a 3 is always pink or truck is always blue.
More information here.
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
A review of the novel “Moonstone” by Sjón
April 17th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This novella – it runs to a mere 100 pages of actual text – is the product of Icelandic writer Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson (Sjón is his pen name). The setting (the Icelandic capital Reykjavík) and the period (October-December 1918) are unusual and the central character – 16 year old Máni Steinn or the titular Moonstone (an Anglicised version of his name) – has some unconventional habits.
Sjón tells three interwoven stories: a young man’s discovery of self, the devastation of so-called Spanish flu on a community, and the impact of the early years of cinema. It is not a tale that will be to everyone’s taste and, if I’m honest, it wasn’t really to mine, but the novel has won prizes and was recommended to me by very close friends. .
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