Mark Meynell's profile

A brilliant radio adaptation, 19 Oct 2009

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

There is a mood evoked by Le Carré's Smiley novels, a chill in the air and a smell of decay - and this radio production has captured them brilliantly. The world is bleak - there are no goodies and baddies, despite ideological differences and partisan politics. The espionage cold war was the ultimate game by chess-playing grandmasters.
In this novel, Smiley is a looming presence, who only appears on occasion. So to get Russell-Beale's exceptional talents on display, you have to listen to some of others in this BBC Radio Smiley series. The star of this series is clearly Brian Cox - utterly convincing as the pawn who never really gets the big picture until the end. Our allegiances twist… Read more

Fascinating insights into a world now lost - but ultimately unsatisfying, 13 Oct 2009

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

This book provides fascinating insights into a world now lost but which still seems familiar because of the painters who recorded the experiences of living in it. The debut novel begins in an apparently unconnected way, but tells a good story about the life of Victorine, the eponymous sitter for the great painter Manet, albeit with a clear feminist spin. It is sometimes confusing to follow, and one has to be alert to the shifts in narrator. What comes through very clearly is the destructive power of the creative impulse, how it overrides fellow-feeling and concern for others. Victorine is as obsessed by her ambition as Manet is, both seemingly blind to the individuals they want to depict… Read more

A Wake Up Call: Articulating the cultural paradigm shifts behind why people reject Christianity, 9 Sep 2009

This book is a wake-up call - and brilliantly helps to articulate the profound shifts that have occurred in western society in how it perceives religion in general, but also Christianity in particular.

I met Wade Bradshaw a couple of times, almost 20 years ago when he was a member of staff at English L'Abri, but he is now a pastor back in his native US. In this book, he has summarised the differences between how people used to reject the Christian gospel and now, by what he calls `The Old Story' and `The New Story'. While obviously not an exact parallel, seismic changes in perception led to many in the Roman Empire converting from the Olympian pantheon to the Christian… Read more