The Body in the Library
by Agatha Christie (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1942)
audiobook read by Stephanie Cole (Lamplight, 2015)
Significantly more engaging than the first Miss Marple novel (albeit still padded out and weighed down by tedious faux-comedic depictions of minor characters). Though Miss Marple herself proves a force to be reckoned with, Christie’s artful misdirection comes very close to cheating.
Blade
dir. Stephen Norrington (1998)
A dark, oddly persuasive vampire/superhero film. Wesley Snipes could so easily have come off as faintly silly, yet doesn’t. Stephen Dorff and his crew walk a similar line, leaving Kris Kristofferson and N’Bushe Wright to add just the right touch of authenticity.
The Secret Mountain
by Enid Blyton (Basil Blackwell, 1941); ill. Dylan Roberts (Armada, 1965)
Writing during the Second World War, Blyton sends her young protagonists on an escapist and rather improbable African adventure. A book notable for its more-or-less non-condescending attitude towards the native boy Mafumu and a rare positive depiction of foreigners (Ranni and Pilescu).
Witness for the Prosecution
dir. Billy Wilder (1957)
Film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s play. The ending still works but Wilder fritters away much of the buildup by stitching in a comedy subplot involving Sir Wilfrid and his private nurse (notwithstanding that Elsa Lanchester won a Golden Globe for this performance).
The Castle of Adventure
by Enid Blyton (Macmillan, 1946)
audiobook read by Thomas Judd (Hodder, 2018)
Another jolly dose of supercilious British youngsters lording it over the world around them. (One wonders what is to become of Button the fox cub and the Gypsy girl Tassie.) Dinah and Lucy-Ann are particularly wet this book. Kiki remains a highlight.
The Green Mill Murder
by Kerry Greenwood (McPhee Gribble, 1993)
audiobook read by Stephanie Daniel (ABC Audio, 2012)
While the mystery in this instance is nigh on non-existent, Phryne and the murderer make their dual entrance on page one and the book proceeds apace, endearing itself to aficionados of early 20th-century Australian culture and showcasing Greenwood’s research of the period.
Foundation
by Isaac Asimov (Gnome Press, 1951); audiobook read by William Hope (HarperCollins, 2019)
A collected sequence of SF novellas taking inspiration from the fall of the Roman Empire. Asimov’s ideas aren’t without interest but the prose is workmanlike and the characters little more than mouthpieces. The future, apparently, contains infinitely more expository speechmaking than women.
Blackadder: The Cavalier Years
by Richard Curtis & Ben Elton; dir. Mandie Fletcher (BBC, 1988)
This 15-minute Comic Relief special is by far the best of the Blackadder one-offs. Though Stephen Fry’s King Charles is a bit laboured, Rowan Atkinson plays Blackadder Version 2.5 with sardonic, simile-prone precision, ably supported by Tony Robinson as the dogsbody Baldrick.
Classic Albums: Meat Loaf, Bat out of Hell
dir. Bob Smeaton (BBC, 1999)
An hour-long documentary charting the creative origins of ‘Bat out of Hell’, corporate resistance to its release, and the bumpy highway ridden to promote the album. Todd Rundgren’s contribution is acknowledged but otherwise the analysis is facile, yielding to extensive musical excerpts.
The Belly of the Bow
by K J Parker (Orbit, 1999)
The Fencer Trilogy’s second instalment proves even bleaker and more cynical than the first. Estranged brothers Bardas and Gorgas Loredan struggle towards victories most decidedly Pyrrhic, the narrative sustained by Parker’s commitment to portraying human foibles and stark, unglorified realism within fantasy.