Movie Review: An Inspector Calls (1954) directed by Guy Hamilton It is spring, 1912 in the English town of Brumley. Wealthy manufacturer Arthur Birling (Arthur Young) and his wife Sybil (Olga Lindo) are having a small dinner party to celebrate the engagement of their daughter Sheila (Eileen Moore) to Gerald Croft (Brian Worth), son of one… Continue reading Movie Review: An Inspector Calls
Tag: England
Movie Review: Die! Die! My Darling!
Movie Review: Die! Die! My Darling! (1965) directed by Silvio Narizzano Patricia Carroll (Stefanie Powers) and her fiancé Alan Glentower (Maurice Kaufmann) are back in London after a couple of years in America. Alan has to take care of some business, so Patricia decides she needs to finally make a condolence visit to the mother of… Continue reading Movie Review: Die! Die! My Darling!
Book Review: Madhouse
Book Review: Madhouse by Angus Hall (Originally published as Devilday) Paul Harvard Toombes is an actor who was born to play Timon of Athens in the Shakespearean play of the same name. But it’s a relatively obscure and unpopular play, so he primarily became a horror actor in Hollywood. His most notable role was as… Continue reading Book Review: Madhouse
Book Review: Way of a Buccaneer
Book Review: Way of a Buccaneer by Davenport Steward It is 1663, and young Wayne Thorp, late of Cambridge University, is assisting his father Captain Thomas Thorpe in a smuggling voyage to Spanish-controlled Panama. Unfortunately, their trading partner, Irish-Spanish minor government official Don Timóteo O’Bannion y Salazar, has decided he can make even more money… Continue reading Book Review: Way of a Buccaneer
Book Review: Class Distinctions Thru History in Review
Book Review: Class Distinctions Thru History in Review by Stephen Joseph Scott Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author for the purpose of writing this review. No other compensation was requested or offered. As long time readers of this blog will know, I’m not myself a historical scholar, just a reader… Continue reading Book Review: Class Distinctions Thru History in Review
Magazine Review: High Adventure #200: Special Last Issue
Magazine Review: High Adventure #200: Special Last Issue edited by John P. Gunnison Much like the pulp magazines it reprints, HIgh Adventure is at last coming to the end of its publication history. But a 200 issue run over 33 years (starting as Pulp Review) is pretty darn impressive. And to celebrate the occasion, this… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #200: Special Last Issue
Book Review: Mary Poppins Opens the Door
Book Review: Mary Poppins Opens the Door by P.L. Travers It is the Fifth of November (remember, remember) and a foggy day in London town. The fog is particularly thick in the Banks household, where things have gone from Bad to Worse since Mary Poppins left the second time. Indeed, it’s so thick that chronically… Continue reading Book Review: Mary Poppins Opens the Door
Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine January/February 2024
Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine January/February 2024 edited by Janet Hutchings Despite the cover date, this issue of the venerable mystery story magazine hit newsstands in December 2023, so is the Christmas issue as well as the Sherlock Holmes tribute. I bought this issue and promptly had it buried under a to read pile,… Continue reading Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine January/February 2024
Book Review: Ireland for Beginners
Book Review: Ireland for Beginners by Phil Evans and Eileen Pollock This is not a full history of Ireland, but more a chronology of its subjugation by England, and its long struggle for independence. Thus it begins in 1169 with a Norman invasion invited in by a deposed Irish king. Henry II of England decides… Continue reading Book Review: Ireland for Beginners
Book Review: Head of a Traveler
Book Review: Head of a Traveler by Nicholas Blake (pen name of Cecil Day-Lewis) Nigel Strangeways, a writer and literary scholar when he isn’t being distracted by his private investigation work, is thrilled to have a chance to meet Robert Seaton, one of Britain’s greatest living poets. Plash Meadow, Seaton’s house, is in Oxfordshire near… Continue reading Book Review: Head of a Traveler