Review of 2021

The year has ended as it began with no let up in the pandemic. Although restrictions so far have been limited in England despite the rising numbers of cases of Covid 19. December has ended on a mild note, 13C today, the 30th, and 14C on New Years Eve, bright and sunny for our long muddy walk around Wendover Woods. June seems so long ago when everything in the garden was coming into bloom. The main border was at it's peak in July. 

Fortunately parkrun started up again on the 24th July and I was able to put that wait for my 250th run behind me. There was even the Thame 10K at the very beginning of September where it only became very warm over the last couple of miles. The year was pretty much injury free except for 3 weeks off around our holiday in October and the last couple of weeks when the old glutes have played up once again.

Cinemas re-opened in May after closing over the winter and everything felt as if we were getting back to normal. My favourite films were French Exit, The Courier, The French Dispatch, Mothering Sunday and One Night in Soho. While cinemas were closed we enjoyed a few Saturday Night Movies at Home. A lot of old films for Alison, most seemed to star Cary Grant. I found some cheap DVD's of foreign films that never were shown in cinemas. Very little theatre unfortunately, but SIX at the Oxford Playhouse was OK. Although it was uncomfortable being in a packed theatre with lots of young people. There was also a specially made filmed performance of Romeo and Juliet that was shown in April. In cinemas, Sutton Foster in Anything Goes was superb. It is back live in London next year and I might try to find a ticket. The tour of the expensively refurbished  Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (or The Lane as they like to call it) was my first trip into London. Coupled with a walk around the completed Coal Drops Yard near. Kings Cross. 

In January I finally cancelled my membership of the RICS after 57 years. There was nothing of interest left for me there. We did have some snow in January but only a light covering. Early February was cold and icy, but by the end of the month, the bulbs in the garden were a picture. We also installed our new LG TV at the beginning of the year. In April we were visiting Stowe on a lovely day and in July we went to an Open Day at the dig at Old St Marys Church in Stoke Mandeville. Alison went back for a second time. In August we went to see my daughter in Tunbridge Wells and enjoyed a long walk around this historic town. At the end of June we were on holiday in Northumberland. Alison had run her two day Race to the Castle (Bamburgh) that went very well. The weather was cold for that time of year, Druridge Bay was very chilly. 

Book Club was on Zoom through to September. The following month we were back at The Bell for the first time since the first lockdown. My favourite books of the year were Crossroads by Mark Radcliffe, The Gathering by Anne Enwright, The Sweet Shop Owner by Graham Swift, Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler, Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout and, of course, Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell.

We had to wait until mid October for a week in the Lake District as our usual cottage was booked up until then. Alison's sister and her husband joined us for a few days. It's disappointing that I can no longer make it up the high fells, even the Woodland Walk at Allan Bank was a trial.  However, we were so lucky with the weather, hardly a spot of rain, and that glorious final day in the Langdale Valley was memorable. Visiting Holehird Gardens with Alison's sister and the Wordsworth Museum with Alison were other highlights.

This year will always be remembered for the Covid vaccine. My first was on 3rd February, the second on 9th April and my booster. on 22nd October. How many more will we have to have?

Our Christmas tree

 

It seems to get heavier every year, lifting the tree down from the loft. But it is worth the struggle. I found the equivalent photo from eleven years ago. I did not believe we'd had it so long.

Our outdoor lights.

Garden in December

 

There is one shrub in the garden that has beautiful clusters of white flowers. I think this might be Viburnum x bodnantense, a deciduous shrub with a fantastic smell. I will bring some in for Christmas Day. 

The following photos are an evergreen shrub of unknown origin that seems to like the shelter from the Leylandii. It is possible it might be a Lingonberry.

Here it is with a cutting from the Viburnum.

Then here are the harbingers of Spring, some bulbs beginning to appear and the very first snowdrop.

Fifteen Years of my Blog

 

Five years ago, this is what I had to say on the tenth anniversary of my retirement and starting my blog:

It was ten years ago today I published my first post on this blog. Apparently, I still had six days left at work before I retired and wanted to get the blog up and running.

So, ten years and 980 posts later (now 1534 posts), I continue to write about books, cinema, theatre, tv and anything that interests me. Apart from enjoying the whole process, I always wanted to keep my brain active once I retired, and the discipline of writing helps to do just that. I guess I always wanted to write. My place at Hull University to read Economics was, I thought, an entry to journalism. Thankfully my "A" Level grades were never good enough as I now know my actual career in construction provided a better outlet for my limited creativity.

So thank you to Alan Yentob who, in his programme "Imagine" in 2006, described all the new things on the internet like YouTube, Facebook and blogs. And to Google for the free platform. Here's to the next ten years.

Well, I haven't yet made it another ten, but on the fifteenth anniversary, I'm still here. So fifteen years since I retired. According to one of my first posts, my last day at work was actually a Tuesday, the 19th December 2006. Amazing where the time goes. I was reading one of those first posts about my last week at work. Still quite young at 62, but in a week I shall be 77.  It sounds a little frightening but I have no particular ailment at the moment (touching my wooden desk), except my hearing isn't what it used to be.  The old back still plays up occasionally, but so did my father's. Having had my booster vaccine a few weeks ago I feel fairly well protected from covid. But I am trying to be sensible, cinema during the day is fine with few people at a screening. Parkrun is outdoors (the milestone t-shirt above is my green 250) and we gave up a planned shopping trip to Milton Keynes next week. 

Another year, another adjustment to my running age grade. I never know how long I can keep up my running. I'm not sure if cutting down to three days a week was a good idea. Missing out the recovery run the day after my only tempo run of the week is maybe the wrong decision. (See my post in November). This week, for example, My longer run two days after the tempo was a struggle. Then yesterday I was back to something much better. Probably not the time of year to be too prescriptive about which days to run. The last couple of weeks has been quite mild but freezing temperatures are forecast in a few days. 

As for this blog, I see that there have been over 380,00 hits. But I have to go back to March 2019 for over 1,000 for a single post. "Poetry from Where the Crawdads Sing" has attracted 1414 hits so far. Although my posts on the music from "Call the Midwife" still are by far the greatest numbers. 

My Favourite Christmas Movies

 

Number 1 - The Holiday

In contradiction to Mark Kermode's omission of The Holiday in his list of Christmas movies, I will make it number one. Kate Winslet at her winsome best.

Number 2 - White Christmas

It was hard to choose between this and Holiday Inn where the song first appeared.

Number 3 - A Christmas Carol

A toss up between the 1951 black and white Alistair Sim film and Patrick Stewart's modern version.

Number 4 - Miracle on 34th Street

The original 1947 version is a bit too old, (and I cannot remember Mark Kermode giving it a mention) so the 1994 remake with Richard Attenborough gets my vote.

Number 5 - Love Actually

The story by Richard Curtis is a perfect Christmas concoction.

Number 6 - Arthur Christmas

A reasonable animated movie. As is The Polar Express.

Number 7 - The Snowman and it's sequel The Snowman and the Snow Dog.

I have always liked these films, even if Mark ignored them.

Number 8 - Elf

I'm beginning to struggle to get a top ten. This is maybe a fun movie?

Number 9 - The Man Who Invented Christmas

A good take on the Dicken's character with excellent production values.

Number 10 - Die Hard

Anything to make sure It's a Wonderful Life is excluded from my list.

Mark Kermode's Christmas Cinema Secrets

In the end I felt a little disappointed. Instead of placing a Christmas film in one category it could appear over many, as Mark seemed more interested in an intricate examination of their contents. I have therefore only placed most of the movies under one heading, and not all those mentioned.

SCROOGE VARIATIONS

Obviously it starts with Alistair Sim's 1951 version of A Christmas Carol. Mark says this is the best of all the many adaptations of the Dicken's novel right up to Patrick Stewart's latest film.

Bill Murray's Scrooge apparently wears well. We also hear about The Muppet's Christmas Carol and the unlikely How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Bad Santa, Gremlins, Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past and Nativity.

I'm not sure why the much better Miracle on 34th Street came into this category, as it did in others to follow. And Dickens does get a look in with the very decent The Man Who Invented Christmas.

COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS

Jingle all the Way and Elf are appropriate, but what about Planes, Trains and Automobiles (Thanksgiving), Toy Story 2, Hector, Tangerine and The Silent Partner. At least Die Hard is set at Christmas and is always shown at this time of year.

GOOD GHOSTS

A bit of a repeat of the first category except we do see Clarence from Mark's favourite Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life. Although as Mark points out, there are parts that are dark and disturbing, and I have seen it enough. Not sure about The Bishop's Wife and it's remake The Preacher's Wife.

DARK SANTAS

This was fun. Films such as Silent Night, Deadly Night and Home Alone (based on a French film), Black Christmas, The Nightmare before Christmas, Tales from the Crypt (scraping the barrel?), and some scary foreign films.

FAMILY CHRISTMAS

The awful Four Christmases and Surviving Christmas with the Relatives make the list, as does The Holly and the Ivy and others from above.

NATIVITY

Obviously the film of the same title, The Nativity Story, Black Nativity (actually looks quite good) and amazingly Monty Python's Life of Brian. Yippee.

FAR FROM HOME

At last White Christmas and it's predecessor Holiday Inn are here. Together with Meet Me in St Louis and others.

CHRISTMAS ROMANCE

Love Actually is here along with Remember the Night, Twelfth Night but why Carol even if it starts in a department store just before Christmas. However there is not a mention of The Holiday one of my favourite romcoms of all time.

THE HEALING FACTOR

This is just a round up of some of the movies discussed. Even the ending of Die Hard. 

Stieg Larsson's Millennium

 

BBC 4 have just shown the complete series of Stieg Larsson's Millennium which comprises The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. This six part TV mini series (two ninety minutes episodes for each of the titles) expands the original movies with additional scenes. It was completed in 2010 just after the final movie in the series and released originally as a DVD box set. I felt it worked extremely well on BBC4 as I had not seen the movies for such a long time. A total of nine hours running time shown over three weeks made superb late night television.

My Favourite Christmas Songs

 

I don't think I have ever listed my top ten Christmas songs, so here they are.

Number 1 - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee.

It must be because it was released in December 1962 that this is my all time favourite. 

Number 2 - Let it Snow by Dean Martin

Possibly because it plays over the final credits of the first Die Hard movie? 

Number 3 - Lonely This Christmas by Mud

The corniest of all the Christmas songs, but I always smile when it comes on our compilation CD.

Number 4- White Christmas by Bing Crosby

Only because it features in two great Christmas movies: Holiday Inn and White Christmas.

Number 5 - Stop the Cavalry by Jona Lewie

Only one line made this anti-war song into the most unlikely Christmas regular.

Number 6 - It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas by Michael Buble

First recorded by Perry Como and Bing Crosby in 1951, I hve picked Michael Buble's version as it is one of Alison's favourites.

Number 7 - Fairy Tale of New York by The Pogues

Not really a Christmas song, only set at that time of year. Controversial and banned by the BBC, it is still one of many people's favourite Christmas record.

Number 8 - Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin' Stevens

No doubt that this a Christmas song, and a jolly one at that. Just what we need.

Number 9 - Little Saint Nick by The Beach Boys

Too much like their Little Deuce Coup but still a good song.

Number 10 - Run Run Rudolph by Chuck Berry

Originally recorded in 1958, it does not appear on any of our Christmas CD's. Famous mainly for the soundtrack to Home Alone.

Not on the list are Gary Glitter's brilliant Another Rock and Roll Christmas (obviously) and the too miserable Last Christmas by Wham.

Islands of Mercy, The Sweet Shop Owner and Trio

 

I never thought there would be a day when I gave a novel by Rose Tremain two stars. I enjoyed all her last ten books but I thought that this one was a bit of a mess. There seemed to be too many competing stories, those in Borneo I found particularly boring. (This is despite my father being there during WW2 and having to be shipped home having contracted malaria). Don't get me wrong, there are patches of the brilliant writing that have always drawn me to her previous novels. There were just not enough to keep my interest.

The prose seemed to be purposely formal at times, but fails to capture nineteenth century Bath and London. If Tremain had concentrated more on the two main female characters and cut out all the stuff in Borneo (which seemed like extracts from a completely different book) this could have made a big difference. The men all seemed like caricatures, and there are even new characters introduced near the end.

However, there were those sections about Jane and Clorinda that were fine. It's just that when they weren't there I struggled to keep going. I would not advise anyone to avoid the book, it's just that by cutting out a third, it would have been great.

I find it's always a risk backtracking to an author's first novel. I should not have worried. Graham Swift is one of my favourite writers and this, his first work from 1980 is one of his best. There were so many parts that took me back to my youth. Even near the beginning, when Willy Chapman's shop is also a newsagents in the 1960's, paper boys started at 6.30 am "riding off with their sacks of newspapers, pedalling their bikes to the appointed streets". That was me. The author describes Willy marking up the papers, each one had the address written on the front. We soon knew the route and where to stop at each house.

The story takes us back and forth through different periods of Willy's life. Here we are post second world war, ration books, bomb sites, shortages, third pints of milk at school.. I knew them all. Then things get better, more in the shops, early TV, bubble gum machines outside his shop, coffee bars and jukeboxes. All so familiar.

Willy' s wife and daughter are there, not the happiest of families, but is that what Willy deserves? Or endures? Graham Swift describes this small life in tones of vivid grey. Even very early we get a taste of the older Willy: "sooner or later, you do something for the last time. And then it becomes some kind of victory". The last passages are a little depressing but are completely true to the story. I agreed so much with the kirkusreviews of this book which concludes "Full of more emotion and with less surface gloss than the later books, The Sweet Shop Owner is richly rewarding".

Set in Brighton in 1968, just the time when I was finishing college there. The trio of main characters are Anny, the American star of the movie being filmed there, Talbot, the older producer and Elfrida, the wife of the director. Their stories are told in alternating chapters as each one has secrets that start to surface. Intricately plotted, witty and never dull, William Boyd never fails to deliver. There are many other wonderful characters, some actually real as is Boyd's habit, such as Leonard Woolf, husband of Virginia. Enough said.

Mothering Sunday, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and House of Gucci

 

It was only later that I realised that the film was such a faithful adaptation of Graham Swift's wonderful novella Mothering Sunday.  Unlike some critics, I found the slowish pace perfect for the story. The screenplay by Alice Birch and the direction of Eva Husson are first rate and the latter secures fabulous performances from the cast, particularly Oliva Colman and Colin Firth are still devastated from the loss of sons in the first world war and face their grief in different ways.. Odessa Young and Josh O'Connor are fine as the young lovers, realistically portrayed by the director. The film looked good, the costumes outstanding and the music just right. I loved it.

What a surprise. This was a very intelligent reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise. There are even subtle hints of what has happened in the intervening years throughout the first part of the movie. Not something you usually expect from a blockbuster. Someone had a great idea how to present a dead  grandfathers' mission  and his family's  discovery. Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd are just about OK as the adults, but it is the children who, again, unexpectedly shine. Particularly Mckenna Grace as the daughter Phoebe. Jason Reitman does a fine job as director, even if the second half succumbs to predictable action sequences and excessive CGI at the end. Two great songs early on, The Clapping Song and Baby It's You, but that was it. And don't you just love the marshmallow babies.

"Smile for the camera". These Gucci's are something else. I'm glad that I didn't know the story, it was quite dramatic at the end. Was I the only one disappointed by the performances, all except the reliable Jeremy Irons. Perhaps it was the casting or the characters? Lady Gaga just seems one dimensional as Patrizia Reggiani  is never convincing. She just seems as if she is acting the part rather than being the character. Same for Adam Driver. I thought that director Ridley Scott just about kept us interested despite the overlong screen time. Everything looked great, the period setting, top production values, wonderful colour, costumes, music and photography, all Oscar worthy? Much more of a soap opera than I thought it would be, what a family!

Tring Book Club - The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal

 

The first two thirds of The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal were fine. An enjoyable, evocative story, well written and cleverly constructed with very short chapters, alternating passages for Iris, Albie and Silas. Some good humour and wit with occasional menace. Lots of interesting stuff about painting, perhaps some study of art appreciation along the way. (I failed Art "O" Level). The studio was "brim full of clutter". Louis says " I've never believed in cataloguing things - of putting books here, and others there, and what not. It shows such a want of taste and imagination ........ such a dismal mechanical mind that tidies". (Well that's me told).

Then the last third changes direction completely to become a made for TV sordid thriller. Lots of repetition. Such unoriginal and gratuitous female abuse leading to an inevitable conclusion. I rushed through the last hundred pages. Such a shame. 

Anything Goes in Cinemas

 

The first screening in cinemas of a big London musical for I don't know how long took me to the Odeon cinema in Aylesbury where I had not been for at least a couple of years. The new refurbishment has transformed the screens into a Luxe venue.  However, I was not all that impressed with the huge leather seats and the massive legroom when the screen was not enlarged and the sound quality was very poor, probably because the speakers were the same. So the musical experience was disappointing, there was hardly any bass so the whole sound suffered as a result. so unlike at Cineworld where deep sounds shake your feet.

The show itself is wonderful. It made me think that the theatrical experience would be much better given the spectacular production and dance sequences. However we did get those close ups that you would not get at the live show. (Except that Robert Lindsay might have preferred not to show his aging visage. Well he is nearly 72). 

The Cole Porter songs are extremely well presented, those in the first half are much better than those in the second. You're The Top, It's De-Lovely, Friendship, I Get a Kick Out Of You, and of course the title song that closes before the interval in one big production number. The best part of the whole thing for me. 

The star of the show is undoubtedly Sutton Foster. She was better than brilliant, her great voice, energy, amazing dancing and overall star quality made me wonder if there is a better song and dance performer on the stage today. Her Tony Awards say it all. All Robert Lindsay had to do was turn up and deliver a few unfunny lines. I just wish I had seen him in Me and My Girl thirty six years ago. 

In all the years on my blog i have never quoted the whole of one review, but this by Lyndsey Winship in the Guardian describes exactly what I wanted to say.

Descriptions of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes seem to pour out in drink metaphors: it’s sparkling, bubbly, a tonic. It’s certainly got the giddy hopefulness of the night’s first champagne bottle popped, suspended in that state when the world is full of bright delight and possibility. The auditorium is fizzing, too, a buoyantly full house. This 1934 show is Depression-era escapism fit for post-Covid times. If you want to remove yourself from the world for a few hours, this is the place to do it.

The genius of Anything Goes lies in the combination of seriously good music with a plot so gloriously inconsequential that a state of blithe, uncomplicated bliss is reached. PG Wodehouse co-wrote the original book but this version, by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman was the basis for a triple-Tony-award-winning 2011 Broadway revival, led by choreographer and director Kathleen Marshall, who takes the reins again here.The story has shifted a little over time – and new songs added, like It’s De-Lovely, originally from Red, Hot and Blue – but it matters little what happens. There’s an ocean liner heading to London from New York, a jaded nightclub singer, a mid-range gangster, a young debutante and her mismatched English fiance, a love triangle, mistaken identity, bad disguises, farce and wordplay, bias-cut satin and resplendent deco designs (by Derek McLane, costumes by Jon Morrell).

The main thing to know is there’s Sutton Foster, the US actor already won a Tony for her performance as Reno Sweeney on Broadway. The show revolves around her full-beam lustre. She can belt and growl like a brassy broad (Ethel Merman originated the role) or let her voice ring pure and clear. She can play moments of vulnerability but most of all she’s just having fun, rattling out dance numbers, leading the chorus, getting a kick out of the show, just as she does out of young Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Samuel Edwards) who unfortunately has eyes for another. Everyone else is better when they’re on stage with her, whether that’s Edwards duetting on You’re the Top – with their rapport his slippery character suddenly pops into three dimensions – or Robert Lindsay’s grizzled gangster Moonface Martin having a ball in Friendship. For all that the plot revolves around people falling in love, it’s really these clever, wordy songs of friendship that have all the hear.

Director Marshall keeps a tight ship, as it were, the neat set-ups and unnecessary complications of the plot weightlessly executed. In the big numbers, she’s masterful at a crescendo, an innocuous intro slowly expanding into full-blown harmonies, rat-a-tat tap routines and high-kicking splits. Supporting Foster are veteran names and new talent: the always likable Gary Wilmot as Yale man Elisha J Whitney and Felicity Kendal the highly strung Mrs Harcourt, then sweet songbird Nicole-Lily Baisden as young Hope Harcourt. Carly Mercedes Dyer steals her scenes as the unshakably self-assured gangster’s moll Erma, with effortless comedy and a powerful, versatile voice. And in the ensemble, take note of the rich bass of Marc Akinfolarin and spirited dancers Jordan Crouch and Jack Wilcox. A show full of jokes just on the right side of lame – or just the wrong side but you laugh anyway – by the end, Anything Goes revels in how ridiculous it is, and the audience does too. This is one to get drunk on, hangover-free.