In Jack Thorne’s script from The Motive and The Cue, the character  named as the film actor Hume Cronyn, the husband of Jessica Tandy, says when he is reminded of the fact that his wife is better known than him, says: ‘Darling, better to touch the stars than never to know them at all’.[1]  This … More This blog is a preparation for seeing the National theatre screening of ‘The Motive and the Cue’ at the Gala cinema, Durham, on the 21st February 2024.

Sean O’Hagan says in recounting an interview in The Observer with Jonathan Glazer that the film he directs, The Zone of Interest, is ‘… the embodiment of the Jewish writer Primo Levi’s insistence that it is ordinary people, rather than monsters, who are capable of committing atrocity. “Monsters exist,” wrote Levi, a Holocaust survivor, “but … More Sean O’Hagan says that ‘The Zone of Interest’, is ‘… the embodiment of the Jewish writer Primo Levi’s insistence that it is ordinary people, rather than monsters, who are capable of committing atrocity. This is a blog on Jonathan Glazer’s film.

This is a blog that reflects on a fine biography, perhaps the best I have ever read of anyone, of Frantz Fanon. The book is Adam Shatz (2024) The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon London, Head of Zeus, Bloomsbury Publishing Co. Frantz Fanon has fascinated me for a long time. I can’t … More This is a blog that reflects on a fine biography, perhaps the best I have ever read of anyone. The book is Adam Shatz (2024) ‘The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon’.

‘History is all omissions and distortions of the truth’.[1] Would there be any point in writing a novel using evidence of facts from queer history, if the truth was easily sifted from the lies? This is a very brief blog on Neil Blackmore (2023: 272) Radical Love London, Hutchinson. This blog is just a speculation … More ‘History is all omissions and distortions of the truth’. Would there be any point in writing a novel using evidence of facts from queer history, if the truth was easily sifted from the lies? This is a very brief blog on Neil Blackmore (2023: 272) ‘Radical Love’

This is blog is about seeing the Southbank Hayward Gallery’s modern historical and contemporary sculpture  exhibition on 21st January 2024 When Forms Come Alive. This is the second follow-up blog to one introducing my day trip: For other parts use links here: Part 1 General Introduction & Part 2: On Auerbach’s Charcoal Heads The Hayward Gallery … More This is blog is about seeing the Hayward Gallery’s sculpture  exhibition on 21st January 2024 ‘When Forms Come Alive’.

Part 2 of a two-part blog about Andrew Scott’s achievement in enacting all the multiple personae of Vanya, as aspects of the solitary and solipsistic self, perhaps (or perhaps not). (Part 1 was about preparing myself for the novelties of the Simon Stephens’ text). Part 2 of this two-part blog about Andrew Scott’s achievement in … More Part 2 of a two-part blog about Andrew Scott’s achievement in enacting all the multiple personae of ‘Vanya’.