J. I. De Beresford

A B plus, 25 Aug 2012

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)

Dambisa Moyo first came to my attention when I read a Guernica magazine interview in which she discussed her book DEAD AID, and she struck me as a fresh and intelligent voice, someone to keep an eye on. Her book about wasted aid in Africa appealed to me because I've often wondered about how much I should give to charity, if at all, given that I have doubts about its long term efficacy and my ability to guage it. Fast forward a couple of years and I finally catch up with her by reading WINNER TAKE ALL. This book also appeals to me because I've been working in China for the last few years and naturally become interested in the profile of this remarkable country. It turns out that Dambisa… Read more

Ignores an inconvenient truth, 10 May 2012

I downloaded a sample of this and was ready to click on 'buy this book' imminently, as I was looking forward to an entertaining and persuasive read.
The author begins or almost begins by stating that not a single manuscript from the man we know of as William Shakespeare of Stratford survives and that this fellow was probably illiterate. That may well be so. But he doesn't bother to address and dismiss the fact that a large scene contributed to a play called Sir Thomas More is almost certainly by the man who wrote the Shakespeare plays (whoever he was) and happens to be handwritten in a writing that matches Shakespeare's signatures and not De Vere's hand. Why do I contend that this… Read more

Budget TV film of the year, 9 May 2012

This reminds me of another film made around the same time, 1408. In both films, a man is trapped in a confined space which seems to have a mind of its own and has to confront his past. 1408 is the better film, with a far superior soundtrack. Ghost Boat is but a poor man's 1408 BUT that is a compliment. Ok, GB has a televisual pace, I wouldn't have minded if it had slowed down a bit at times. Oftentimes, the dialog was clunky ITV drama style, and the camerawork was sometimes poor. Effects are also sometimes dodgy. I'm not sure that Walkman was 1981 vintage, either. I think it was a later model. All of these flaws are ITV issues. And yet, it's very good if you forgive it a few… Read more