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Archive for the tag “book”

19 Jun 2014

The Fault in our Stars

The Fault in our Stars is a wonderful film on many levels. The acting is superb, as is the casting as is the music. The use of a narrator helps the story flow. As most people know the story relates to cancer in young people. The film is undoubtedly sad however oddly very funny as well. Go and see it. I am not going to spoil the story by telling you what happens but suffice to say a fast moving film that never dwells on any single part, issue or character for long. This story could happen and to that extent is a real story. The music provides a great background and is thoughtfully chosen with a minor complaint. What happened to the song by Birdy T-shirt? A great song and although on the playlist seems to have fallen off the film somewhere. Wrong decision. Not everyone agrees with me. I am a fan of The Economist but cannot agree with their view that the film is ” too sweet and self-absorbed”. Cancer if you have it is very self-absorbing. It certainly absorbed me when I had Malignant Melanoma a few years ago and after my treatment a letter arrives telling me my percentage change of surviving the next 7 years.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2014/06/new-film-fault-our-stars

On the other hand I agree entirely with the views from the BBC, not always the case

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27900741

This is cancer and this is real and this can happen. For background information visit the website for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Until I saw Suede at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2014 in one of the sponsored concerts for Teenage Cancer Trust, I had no real knowledge of this issue, problem nor solutions. Just had not thought about it. Cancer is a sad illness with often a sad ending but when this happens in young people just embarking on their lives this makes it worse. At a minimum their lives are interrupted and at worst finished far too early. The work of the Teenage Cancer Trust is impressive and although individuals like Stephen Sutton MBE are very visible there are many thousands not only of patients but helpers and supporters that remain less visible. If this film does achieve something, it will be that it makes teenage cancer something that people talk about, consider and perhaps try and prevent or cure.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged birdy, book, cancer, cancer treatments, cancer young, funny film, indy music, john green, osteosarcoma, royal albert hall, suede, t shirt, t shirt song birdy, tearjerker, teenage cancer trust, terminal illness, TFIOS, the fault in our stars, thyroid cancer | Leave a comment

22 Mar 2014

The Devil in the Marshalsea

I rarely read the saturday review section of The Times. Today for a first for many reasons including an excellent book review of a book due out March 27th by Antonia Hodgson ” The Devil in the Marshalsea”. Amazon was visited and by 9.29 am the book had been ordered. What fascinated me was the topic of the book which is a story around a debtors prison in London in 1727. London then was ( and still is) a cruel place with institutions such as Newgate Jail and Bedlam operating at full capacity to lock those up whom we might treat today with some tolerance or pity even. These places were real then. The cruelty, the fraud, the back room conspiracies and the backhanders. Much of this sounds like what we might read in our papers in the news sections today. Not a lot has changed really.

There are a whole series of books based on “faction” that cover the history of the middle ages and later, C J Sansome is an example writing about Matthew Shardlake. Clearly there is an admixture of fact, learning,speculation and fiction, but broadly these books bring to live how life must have been for those in trouble in the 18th century and before.

Lets wait for March 27th and see if my impulsive purchase was a good option or not. I expect it is

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged 1727 london, 18th century, 18th century london, amazon, antonia, antonia hodgson, book, book review, c j sansom, cj sansom, crime london, cruel characters, debtors prison, historical book, london, marshalsea, masters side, matthew shardlake, medieval history, shardlake, the devil in the marshalsea, tom hawkins, william acton | Leave a comment

18 Mar 2014

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Lives Here

The Stieg Larsson trilogy are some of the best books ever written. The main female character Liz Salander manages to become endearing and likeable despite some dubious personality traits. Recently in Stockholm I asked where she lived in the fictional story. These photos were taken in the general area and give some idea of the locality. Next time for me it will be one of the tours of all the places in the book. Strange but true.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged book, elizabeth salander, girl, girl dragon, girl with dragon tattoo, holiday, liz salander, millenium trilogy, personality traits, scandinavia, stieg, stieg larsson, stockholm, stockholm tour girl dragon tattoo, stockholm tours, sweden, trilogy, vacation, Where liz salander lives | Leave a comment

31 Jan 2014

Flooding in Wales, Ross on Wye and Chepstow

Recently I was in Chepstow for a few days and got the opportunity to briefly see some of the ravages that the weather had brought to the area. It was raining needless to say. Rivers were high and fast, it was not clear where exactly the boundary of the river had originally been and in some cases new ” rivers” had arrived. In short it was wet. These few photos attempt to capture the wetness. The area itself is rural beauty and no doubt in summer provides beautiful walks. Tintern Abbey sits grey and mysterious. The disused Tintern railway station has been put to good use by turning it into a small kind of feature park for children with trains and an old signal box. Some of the scenes could have come right out of Tom’s Midnight Garden.