Blogs

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/...

Georgia is a 14 year old schoolgirl that hasn’t done it-yet. She’s never kissed a boy or had a boyfriend. It’s all very trying. She has a mum that doesn’t understand her and a dad that’s going to New Zealand to work and possibly forever, which means she might be able to talk her mum around, and into having a fabulous birthday bash. Angus the cat has a cameo role, usually doing cute things with Georgia’s little sister. The Thong belongs to her...

Who said there’s no justice out there? Bully (2001) Larry Clarke film based on a book by Jim Schutze. I don’t know who these people are, but it’s an everyday story apart from the bully gets killed and those that did it go to prison. In between that there’s some sex and drug taking and the fragile ecosystem of teenage egos jousting for space and love and belonging. Every action builds on another action and is pitch perfect. The awkward outsider,...

Robert Douglas (2005) Night Song of the Last Tram: A Glasgow Childhood. I wasn’t really looking for this book, but it found me. I’ve enough to read; too much to read, but I couldn’t put it down. It peaked out at me from the library stacks, beckoning me over. The opening: ‘If my father…had been killed in North Africa or Italy during the Second World War I know that for the rest of my life I would have looked at a few photographs of him and...