(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) I can still remember how incredibly isolating and alone it felt to be bullied continuously and mercilessly during 13 long years of school. Like anyone under constant attack by bullies, I alternated between crushing despair, near-palpable loneliness and a sense that no one would Continue Reading
Book review: Cheddar Luck Next Time by Beth Cato
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) A digital preview copy of Cheddar Luck Next Time provided by Angry Robot Books Books in return for an honest and objective review; the novel released 8 April 2025. Cosy mysteries are becoming quite the thing. It makes sense – we live in a world rapidly Continue Reading
Look me in the eye and, uh, tell me that you didn’t kill her?” Poker Face 2 has a full, very truthful trailer
(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTA “mystery-of-the-week” series streaming on Peacock. Charlie has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying. Season 2 takes Natasha Lyonne as Charlie’s existential road trip to new heights, tracking lies and solving crimes in the most unexpected places – from a minor league baseball field Continue Reading
Easter book review: Friends of Dorothy by Sandi Toksvig
(courtesy Hachette Australia) While this book is not set at Easter, it carries themes of redemption and renewal, and of love and connection which surely are at the heart of this most redemptive of seasons … If you ask most people, they would tell you that they are very nicely Continue Reading
Easter special review redux: It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!
This review was first published on 20 April, 2019. You have to hand it to Linus (Stephen Shea) – in the face of all evidence to the contrary, he continues to believe, and believe with a capital “B”, even when sceptics such as Sally mock him gently, and let’s be Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision 2025: Week 4 – Armenia, Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark (semi-final 2, part 1)
What is the Eurovision Song Contest?Started way back in 1956 as a way of drawing a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is telecast in both English and French – is open to Continue Reading
Thick girls are having a moment: Thoughts on Survival of the Thickest S1 & S2
(courtesy IMP Awards) SEASON 1 On the surface, there’s not a lot that’s remarkable about Michelle Buteau’s series, Survival of the Thickest. Based on her book of humourous essays of the same name, the show centres on an aspiring fashion stylist, Mavis Beaumont (Buteau in the starring role; she is Continue Reading
Trailers upon trailers upon … The Life of Chuck, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, 28 Years Later, Thunderbolts* + Jurassic World: Rebirth …
(via Shutterstock) Whenever I see a blockbuster movie trailer, and this post is packed to the epic rafters with them, I am immediately taken back to being a wide-eyes kid who would see trailers for the likes of Star Wars: A New Hope and E.T. and get a visceral, fizzy Continue Reading
Book review: The Montegiallo School of Swearing by Andrew HC McDonald
(courtesy The Fremantle Press) Reinventing your life is no easy thing. Oh everyone dreams of Eat. Pray.Love.-ing the hell of their tired, meaningless or traumatically disrupted lives, but dreaming of it happening is far easier than taking the concrete steps necessary to manifest it in the real world. But sometimes Continue Reading
AFFFF25 movie review: In the Sub for Love (A toute allure)
(courtesy Alliance Francaise French Film Festival 2025) As premises for romantic comedies go, and let’s face it they are as wide and different as the days in the middle of summer are long, In the Sub for Love (A toute allure) has an absolute cracker. A handsome male flight attendant, Continue Reading