My last ordinary weekly roundup of the year - next week's will be rolled into month-end and year-end reports. Current Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake The Anything Box, by Zenna Henderson The Prisoner of Brenda, by [Colin] Bateman Last books finished All Flesh is Grass, by Una McCormack Utopia For Realists, by Rutger Bregman Perdido Street Station, by China Miéville A Belgian Christmas Eve, by Alfred Noyes Planetfall, by Emma Newman Macrolife, by George Zebrowski Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Volume 1: A New Beginning, by Jody Houser, Rachael Stott, Giorgia Sposito, Enrica Eren Angiolini Next books Ormeshadow, by Priya Sharma ...
If a political party can be defined by its membership, its leadership and its policies, then it can also be damned by association with those it chooses to take money from. Politics in the UK is underfunded and as a result all the parties, without exception, do what they can to attract donors to get their messages across and to campaign on key issues. Most are wary of the background of these donors, but on occasion the temptation to accept large donations proves too much and a political party walks into controversy. One such donation is referred to in this ...
. . . or, of you like, "brings home the bacon." After months of: "a deal is unlikely," "the EU's demands are completely unrealistic," "Britain will thrive with no deal," suddenly with a flourish, a deal is pulled out of the hat. 1. Carefully choreographed to be announced this Christmas Eve as a present along with those from Santa.2. With the details not yet available so that all we can do is rejoice at the achievement of the hitherto unlikely if not impossible. 2. Carefully rebranded as "Australia -style" to disguise the fact that, when we do see the details, ...
Christmas is nearly here, which means it is time to dust off those Christmas carol quiz questions, as written by lawyers. Good luck!
i) births and deaths 24 December 1925: birth of Innes Lloyd, producer of Doctor Who from The Celestial Toymaker (First Doctor, 1966) to The Enemy of the World (Second Doctor, 1967-68), who overhauled the show by getting rid of all the regular cast including the star, thus ensuring its long-term survival. 24 December 1941: birth of John Levene, who played Benton in various UNIT stories from 1968 to 1975. ii) broadcast anniversaries 24 December 1966: broadcast of second episode of The Highlanders. Polly and Kirsty capture Ffinch; the Doctor tricks solicitor Grey; but Ben, Jamie and the Laird are trapped ...
Given that it is Christmas Eve, and I am in Belgium, the title of this short play caught my eye. (A few years ago I read the same author's The Last Man aka No Other Man.) I really should not have bothered. Written and set in occupied Belgium in 1915, it's a straight cut and paste from the author's Rada, which was set during the Balkan war of 1913, to the extent that the central character keeps her own name and the others generally sound more Balkan than Belgian. Rada is the unwilling hostess of two German soldiers, fresh from ...
With thanks to Dundee Volunteer and Voluntary Action
