I work in the voluntary sector on disability related issues.
I am developing sad middle-aged idiosyncrasies like my nostalgic interest in knitting and Vesta meals.
I also have quaint notions such as that mobile phone means you can leave it anywhere, and the ‘seventies was a great decade.
My 20 favourite films (this month) are: The Wind will carry Us, A Canterbury Tale, Offside, Werckmeister Harmonies, Le Fils, Kapurush, Ten, Uzak, The Lemon Tree, Deyrah, All about my mother, Inland Empire, Festen, La Haine, Weekend, Rear Window, M, La Ville est Tranquille, and Intimate Lighting.
I’ve recently watched: Man of Marble, Broken Embraces, The Lemon Tree, Vendredi Soir, Through a Glass Darkly, Kapurush, Mesrine, and O Sangue.
Last year I took part in The Auteurs 10 best films list, my top 10 (which relied on sorcery to scale the list down from 23) were:
None of which made it into the amalgamated top 10!
My favourite fiction includes: To the Lighthouse, Bel Canto, Dinner at the homesick restaurant, Beloved, Howard’s End, Postcards, if on a winters night a traveller, and anything by Jane Smiley.
After a few months and 10 books wandering around Swedish detective fiction, I have recently returned to more familiar territory with two William Boyd’s: Ordinary Thunderstorms – much better than the reviews suggested; and Restless, (which annoyed my Mother), then Rose Tremain’s Trespass – like much of her output it was good at making the reader consider his/her own beliefs.
As a delicious holiday treat I read Aravind Adiga’s latest which was more like a series of short stories/character portraits, but he is so good at drawing people and their lives that it was a delight – my wish is for a good director to turn White Tiger into a film worthy of the novel.
At the moment I am mainly listening to:
