Blogs

Kristin Scott Thomas plays a woman who is taken into her sister’s home after spending 15 years in prison. I missed the start of this. Some films are like spending 15 years in prison, so I wasn’t particularly worried. By the time I’d joined the action her sister, who plays a university lecturer was joking and flirting with another middle class tweed jacketeer while KST stood and furtively smoked a cigarette. There are worse things that watching...

Through the good offices of one of our members we are able to offer you good folks the following offer at a wonderful villa in Italy: 'This has to be the most tranquil, understated Bed and Breakfast in the world. The views are stupendous, the food is splendid and it's the ultimate place for writers and artists to get away from it all. There is a whirlpool in the garden overlooking Perugia and the Apennines and a Turkish bath with chromotherapy...

Hilary Mantel (2005) ‘Beyond Black’ Alison Hart is fat and a medium. Colette is not. She is sharp and thin. They are an odd couple tied together in this life, but Alison’s past comes back to haunt her. There are a number of set plays, such as Princess Diana’s death, but, for me the most interesting part by far was ‘About the author’ at the end, where Louise Tucker talks to the author. I have absolutely no idea why this book received such...

based on a novel by Patrick Süskind. This is the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a cartoonish figure, and 18th century superman. His story is narrated by John Hurt. Dustin Hoffman is one of the perfumiers who endeavour to teach Jean his trade, which proves impossible, of course, because that is where his superpowers lie. He cannot fly, like Superman, but he can discern any scent and, with training in the perfumery trade, replicate it. His...

The Football Years was interesting not only because it was mainly about Celtic’s double winning team and the European Cup semi final against ‘The Butchers of Bilbao, Athletic Madrid, which they lost, but because I remember bits and pieces of it and I was, in effect reliving my past. Similarly, the soundtrack of my young life The Jackson Five (a cartoon on Saturday morning), The Bay City Rollers posters splattered across my sister's walls and...

Kiddult: Cuban Punch Up BBC 4. This follows four boxers, Cuban Pioneers, who live away from home in dorms and train and study with Havana City’s club. One of the boy’s featured dad was an Olympic gold medallist and World Boxing champion. His legacy was a broken down car-there are few cars in the film- and a flat, and, of course, his son. He makes it to the final of the inter-regional contest for his particular weight and size. They are all aged...

This is the book and subsequent film that gives us fellow abcers hope. I don’t know why it should, but in an adolescent way, it does. And that what 15 year old Oliver Tate is. It’s his story told in bite sized chunks, easy to read, put down and pick up again. It’s a holiday book you can leave it in the sand, or you can pick it up and read it, or all in one go if you want. If I were making the movie it would be Oliver’s voice narrating. He would...

Cabaret (1972) and Mrs Brown’s Boys. Cabaret (1972) was made a life time ago. But if it was made today I think it would still pick up all the Oscars and rightly so. Liza Minelli is not the prettiest of woman, but she shimmers and shakes and sings and dances as if the world believes it to be so. Liza Minelli is Sally Bowles and Sally Bowles is Liza Minelli. The rouged puppet like MC in the Kit Kat pulls the strings and the soundtrack lets the...

BBC 2. Christopher and his kind(er). Ok my German is crap, my English not much better, but luckily Isherwood’s looking back at his Germanic idyll, so wonderfully done with Cabaret takes a bit of a beating here. Auden with his war poetry hoped to save the world, but, of course, nobody likes poetry and they didn’t know about macrobiotic diets in 1930s Germany. They were all too busy stomping about speaking German/English with a suitable accent...

The film of Submarine - the novel by Joe Dunthorne that started life here on ABCtales - is getting rave reviews. If you haven't read the book, then do! And if you go and see the film then please leave a review here on the forums. It just goes to show how ABCtales can help you develop as a writer. Joe was a student at UEA when he started on here and he still posts from time to time as 'spack'. Find his work here: http://www.abctales.com/user/...