How delightful to discover this fourth series of the winning "Cabin Pressure" already archived on CD.
The stellar cast ~ the deliciously fruity Stephanie Cole as a new kind of Mafia mama, the unbiquitous Roger Allam who has cornered the television market in political and detective strongmen depending on the angle of his hat, Benedict Cumberbatch who must fit the recordings in at weekends between being Star Trek villains and Sherlock Holmes and last but definitely no least, though possibly lesser known than his fellow performers, John Finnemore, creator of this delightful series.

I have to confess to never having listened to the series on the radio back at the beginning of the year so I do tend to gorge myself on this recording. It has that retro feel of "The Navy Lark" and I secretly hope that it doesnt get snatched up the telly as it truly is a radio show using all the elements that radio does so well.

In this series we have flights to places as various as Timbuktu (as imaginary as any myth),Wokingham and Yverdon-Les-Bains and each show is a total delight.

Highly recommended!!

Jacqueline Wilson's writing is just about the polar opposite of the propogandist fodder of Ms Enid Blyton a half century earlier and yet they, surprisingly, both appeal to the same young readership demographic. They both write for children rather than at them. Blyton may have written the same story 400 times but there is still an element in them that appeals to children who know they are written for them. Children know these things.

Jacqueline Wilson also knows what children want. They want honesty, they want engaging characters, they want humour and above all they want a good story that keeps them turning the pages (or in this case listening to the next chapter)

Queenie is the latest in a very long line of brilliantly crafted novels by the author who holds no punches when it comes to telling it like it is. She has courted with controversy often before and here she looks into a disturbing period in history that has hitherto been smoothed over by the likes of Blyton who always painted too much sunshine in the country lane.

Queenie tackles a subject ~ the treatment of sufferers of TB ~ in her own inimitable style. TB was, in many ways, the AIDS of its day, a subject rarely publicly discussed and the risk of contamination leading to extremes of paranoia.

Elsie Kettle, such an exquisitely named heroine, has contracted the disease through her beloved Nan and the book follows the consequences leading to a nightmare sanitorium that reminded me so of Solzhenitsyn's "Cancer Ward.

The book is carefully read by Finty Williams in a voice that, for me now, will ever be Elsie Kettle's. Even though you may have read the book it is wonderful to have it read to you by somebody who could certainly make bedtime a very special time.

The second instalment of the ongoing mysteries featuring the intrepid Mirabelle Bevan, a name that instantly dates our heroine, but none the worse for that. She now joins the ranks of Phryne Fisher and Maisie Dobbs as fearless sleuths in an historic setting.

The time and place of this series could hardly be better; the post war decade, one of recovery and disorientation, loss of identity and the bold Big Lies farmed as propaganda by the politicians ( very very few actually had it so good!). This decade too was the source of the best of the Agatha Christie novels exploiting the loss of paperwork, the Cold War and the blurring of all kinds of boundaries. These, too, used to great effect in the most recent series of "Foyle's War".

Setting the series in Brighton, a self-confessed naughty city with its history of criminal activity, divorce cases and other ripping yarns
is also genius. Being a Brightonian I have relished following the routes of Mirabelle just as I have the novels of Peter James, a local writer and Brighton admirer.

I can not wait for the next book and I am certain these may well be destined for televisual fame.

Roland Barthes describes the element in a photograph that draws the eye to the picture's narrative, the punctum, be it a sandal strap, a look between two people or a mysterious all pervading wall, shadowed. In the introduction to this book Paula Lichtarowicz sites an image of a woman walking away fm the viewer and towards a wall. The wall, not the woman is the intriguing element. Oce I had read this I knew that this was going to be a very special literary journey, and I was not wrong...

Drawing on every aspect of human existence, and its influences, as well as the powerlessness felt by children Ms. L has explored a world from a child's viewpoint, unexplained and autistic (not in the medical way but in the way of the self-centredness of children who live as the focus of an unexplained universe). The constant media references to film and song clips put me in mind of James James and his stream of consciousness within which anything is permitted including new language, rough juxtapositions of seldom understood urban myths and explanations of reality.

The garden location and its parallel in ancient text as well as a metaphor for the protecting and claustrophobic childhood home/playpen/classroom etc from which we all attempt to escape with varying degrees of success. I was reminded, too, of Shyamalan's deceptive "Village" where protection from the outside world is a Big Untruth peopled by demons.

This novel, though shamelessly experimental in style, is a very simple story, that of the disturbing world in which all of us grow up with the faith and belief that we are being told the facts about our existence and as we mature one by one these myths are no more than burst balloons

This book will disturb, puzzle, frustrate readers in equal degrees. Character driven in a very new and clear way comparisons to the "Curious Dog" genre are inevitable also the way that each of us makes sense of our world through private language, memories and mismemories but essentially by stories such as this one

This very brief little story is presumably from a collection of Agatha Raisin anecdotes, a coffee break reading and AR is always worth the time.

From a series of much heralded episodes in the Pacific Sun newspaper later famously to the San Francisco Chronicle where it became almost as awaited as the serialisation of Dickens, Maupins series of novels (eight and counting) set in S.F. and focussing on the household at 28 Barbery Lane overseen by the enigmatic Anna Madrigal, one of the greatest creations in modern fiction, has been filmed for television, though generally ignored by the big screen, and here presented as a radio drama or at least this first of the books that lays down the mythology.

The recording seems a little frantic to me in contrast with the laid back quality of the books; it all feels a little rushed and even, at times, confusing. Several of the voices are similar and so, unlike television, the listener has to concentrate more. Anyone coming to this story new may well be bewildered by ut all.

Personally I could never get enough of Mrs. Madrigal and her marijuana and secret history, Mona and her hippy extravagances, the naive girl from Cleveland, Mary Ann Singleton and the emblematic pre AIDS hero Michael "Mouse " Tolliver; it was almost too sad that he grew up in the later books!

Fans will love this.

A revamp and repackaged selection of Dionne's unknown hits accompanied by filler tracks from some of her stable mates, nevertheless there is no such thing as a bad Dionne CD and this is a player.

The CD features one of my favourite Dionne non hits "Seeing You Again" over six minutes of poignant soulful, gut-wrenching brilliance. The CD is worth t he money for this track alone, it never turns up on any of the regular Warwick reruns.

Its also great to hear a Gladys Knight track, she of the belting vocal at her best and a rare Vanessa Williams song "One of a Kind", how can anybody be that beautiful and that talented.

A great little package with a couple of rerecordings of more obscure Dionne tracks ~ "In Between the Heartaches" and "Don't Say I Didnt Tell You"

I found this teeny tiny Transformer-like device lying in its tight fitting plastic sarcophagus ready to be activated, batteried and vibrating at the first touch.

Being an aged and bearded fellow (beard trendily shaped to imitate failing jawline!!)I always enjoy a modest shave every few days to conceal the silvering of the bristle! This new little chap took care of the business without demure leaving the face adolescently fresh and shiny.

Although I recommend the razor without reserve this was only its first outing to the bathroom, will it serve me as well in a month's time? I will have to wait and see.

This is another volume in the "All That Matters" series of little books bursting with information.

Keith Kahn-Harris has tackled this complicated subject in a calm and mannered way dividing his book up into digestible chunks although the largest and most difficult to digest is the prejudice and bigotry that spawned anti-Semitism in a world that should have been so much more enlightened. But he is fair and does not write judgementally : he is an historian and writes it how it was ( and unfortunately still is in many parts of the world)

He begins with definitions, the history of the Jewish nation ~ its problems and misunderstandings, follows this with a closer look at what it means to be Jewish ~ the rites, rituals, diets, costumes etc what it is like to live Jewishly.

Kahn-Harris has a wry sense of humour (perhaps a Jewish trait) and intersperses his text with examples of the great Jewish joke.

This book, as all the others in the series, is packed with references to further reading, studies on Jewish writing, film,songs, culture particularly books on the Shoah, Zionism and the new state of Israel.

Any student of the faith will find this little pocket size volume invaluable

This quartet, three slight, one novella refreshes the delirium that was Bloomsbury, that mythical land of liberal and inventive artists living a dream in gardens beneath shaded trees, in Parisian garrets, loving and behaving like none before.

Angelica's memories are in tune with the times and though she helps along the mythology grown up around this "privileged" lot she can only add to its charm and nostalgia. We shall not see the like of them again and these little pieces are tantalisingly brief, the novella rich in language and desire.

A lovely find and highly recommended