When you’re growing up, figuring out who you are and how the people around you matter is not always a straightforward exercise. It should be, on paper at least, a slam dunk that you would love your mother since she, in all likelihood very much loves you back but in Continue Reading
Chill to the music: Tash, Mariah the Scientist, BAYNK, Ryan Hemsworth, Lianne La Havas
2020 has been a frantic, hamster-on-an-ever-faster-spinning-wheel, groove-in-the-floor-from-running-frenetically-back-and forth kind of year. I need a break. You no doubt need a break. But Christmas holidays are some way off yet – four weeks sounds close but trust me, it is NOT close enough – and so while we wait for that Continue Reading
The best Christmas present of all – The Vicar of Dibley is coming back to our screens
2020 has been beyond a doubt the kind of year that calls out for some cleverly-written, very funny comfort food. Thankfully all those calls into the desperate ether have been answered with some very welcome Geraldine Granger-centric news, according the the good folk at Bleeding Cool: “The BBC’s classic comedy Continue Reading
Book review: Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker
Adventures are usually supposed to be fun, giddily exciting undertakings, thekind of thing that The Famous Five or The Lord of the Rings cohort set out on (though admittedly the latter group did have the weight of theworld on their shoulders, what with ending great evil and all that) and Continue Reading
The Walking Dead: World Beyond – “Truth or Dare” (S1, E7 review) + Fear the Walking Dead: “Bury Her Next to Jasper’s Leg” (S6, E6 review)
THE WALKING DEAD: THE WORLD BEYOND SPOILERS AHEAD … AND AN ART GALLERY IN A TRUCK AND LYING FOR GOOD REASONS … Who doesn’t love a light and unburdened soul? Let’s face it, most of us will choose spilling the truth, if only to make ourselves feel better and perhaps Continue Reading
Book review: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell is one of those rare books that successfully and with quietly devastating effect takes you deep into the life of an historical figure and brings them into life with a vivacity so palpable you feel as if you known them as well as your own friends. Continue Reading
This holiday season, dare to fall in love: Thoughts on Dash & Lily
If you are one of a more romantic persuasion than most, then you will find a great deal to like about a show that combines romantic comedy and Christmas, two genres that together account for much of the swoon-worthy, sigh-worthy, rose-coloured glass wearing wonder that makes the escapist part of Continue Reading
Comics review: Heartstopper (Volume 3) by Alice Oseman
Ah, the giddy joys of falling in love. All the wining and dining and dating and kissing and the glittering possibilities of things yet to come; it is hard not to be swept into the starry-eyed dance of romantic back-and-forth, culminating, if Cupid is smiling upon you, in getting together Continue Reading
Give a little love: John Lewis / Waitrose debut their very kind 2020 #Christmas ad
2020 has been a tough year. Tens of millions of people around the world have contracted COVID-19 or found themselves in lockdown to avoid hastening its spread or have been unable to see close friends and loved ones for much of the time. So what’s the world need in a Continue Reading
Star Trek: Discovery – “Die Trying” (S3, E5 review) / The Mandalorian – “Chapter 11: The Heiress” (S2, E3 review)
STAR TREK: DISCOVERY SPOILERS AHEAD … AND PLANTS RUN AMUCK …. If you ever wanted a Star Trek episode, no matter the series, and you’re likely well aware their number is legion, or soon to be at least, that absolutely, perfectly and completely encapsulates how this most idealistic of franchises Continue Reading