Henning Mankell in Woodstock
Popular culture mostly passes me by. But the extraordinary publishing phenomenon of Scandinavian crime fiction has not. In our house it began when, quite by chance, we stumbled upon the BBC TV adaptation of Henning Mankell’s gloomy detective Kurt Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh. We liked it so much we lapped up the Swedish films when [...]
Intelligent comedy, isn’t it?
Britain has a fine tradition of producing clever comedy duos: The Two Ronnies, Morecombe and Wise, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie to name three of the very best. Happily, Britons are still rising to meet the standards left by the aforementioned legends: for example Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, David Mitchell and Robert Webb and [...]
On This Deity
I have recently been following a new blog, hosted by Dorian Cope (pictured) called On This Deity. Since August Dorian has daily been commemorating what she calls ‘culture heroes’ and reminding us of world events that have in some way had a pivotal impact on culture, society, thinking, politics or science. You know, the big [...]
Maps – as seen on the BBC
News of my maps has made it to a very nice article on the BBC website. I also appeared in a short item on BBC TV Oxford News in the bulletins at 6.30pm and 10.30pm, which was fun. If you’d like a map, please visit my online shop, or simply email me.
Mankell’s Wallander
I read a lot. Mostly books about things. Mostly things like natural history. I hardly ever read fiction. So it comes as a surprise to me to find myself engrossed in a crime fiction series by Swedish writer Henning Mankell featuring detective Kurt Wallander of the Ystad police. I first stumbled across Wallander in the [...]
Doctor Who and Vincent van Gogh
I just don’t get Doctor Who, the much-loved BBC TV series. However, I was curious about this weekend’s episode because it featured as its central character Vincent van Gogh, who regular readers will know is a particular favourite of mine. So I watched it. I suspected that actor Tony Curran would make a rather good [...]
Van Gogh’s Letters: the books
After 15 years of work, the Van Gogh Museum has published an astonishing six volume set of the complete letters of Vincent van Gogh. Building on the groundbreaking work done by the late Jan Hulsker, the authors have set a standard in art publishing that it’s hard to see will be bettered. A more thorough [...]
On NBC Nightly News
After last week’s auction and media scrum over the Swinford toll bridge, I thought it was all over. It seems I was wrong! On Friday I was asked by NBC news correspondent Mike Tai…
Colditz
When I was growing up in the late 60s and early 70s there seemed to be a lot on the telly about World War 2. The masterful The World at War, narrated by Laurence Olivier, …
Meeting David Attenborough again
After queuing for three hours at Waterstones bookshop in Oxford on Tuesday I had the privilege of once again meeting David Attenborough. He signed two books for me: one his latest book called ‘Life stories’, and the other, my copy of Alfred Russel…
