Top Books 2010
I’m jumping the gun here a bit, but there won’t be time for me to do it nearer to the end of the year. Since the only books I’m likely to finish before the end of the year are War and Peace and Eclipse, if either of them are to go on the list, they will have to wait til next year.
Like last year, I’m not ranking these—I’m just going to put them in order of when I read them. I read some quite enjoyable books this year, some in my comfort zone and some out, but really none quite leap out at me as extraordinary (though I always, always enjoy Patrick O’Brian, but that’s a foregone conclusion).
I read more than 50 books this year, which makes it seem quite good (ie I read more than one a week), but that’s deceptive, given that 19% was poetry and 22% was Doctor Who-related. The split between fiction and nonfiction was pretty even (48% fiction).
News of a Kidnapping (Gabriel Garcia Márquez)
This was the best book by Márquez that I have yet read. Totally different in style to the magic realism of his fiction—this was precise, to the point, well-structured, but full of humanity, and wholly gripping. The author’s roots are in journalism, and this is an accomplished and moving study of what happened in the early 1990s when Pablo Escobar’s terrorist faction decided to pressurize the Colombian government not to extradite to the U.S.—by kidnapping eight innocent people. I found it very hard to put down even though you know at the beginning who will live and who will die. In it, I believe, you can see the best and worst of humanity.
Not in These Shoes (Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch)
Maybe I really liked these poems because I identified with them-that was even before I got into the catering business! They deal with real life, in a distinctive voice. An experienced, cynical, yet self-deprecating approach.
Their Finest Hour and a Half (Lissa Evans)
This book was set on the Home Front of Britain during World War II, but what set it apart was its delightful tone and creative use of filmmaking techniques within a novel. It was entertaining, amusing, and full of authenticity but not in an ostentatious way, and had some quite strong characters. The three seemingly disparate parts of the plot met up briefly, as in The Night Watch (except in real time whereas that book moved backward), which was oddly and appropriately cinematic. My favorite parts were the imbedded “film” scripts and the accompanying metafictional technique.
The Bloody Chamber (Angela Carter)
I really surprised myself in that I loved this collection. If you want to go for all the symbolic stuff, there’s plenty to search for—but if you want to read it on a superficial level, it’s as fun as one of my favorite books of all time, Beauty by Robin McKinley. I can see this influencing McKinley, Disney, Sondheim, and on and on and on. It was a lot less erotic and explicit than I had been given to believe. It’s very in tone with Gothic horror.
The Fortune of War (Patrick O’Brian)
Well, what can I say? O’Brian did it again. Some exciting naval battles, wonderfully paced, and a real shift on focus, both character-wise and in setting. O’Brian’s handling of the War of 1812 is splendidly even-handed, and there were some great touches to the setting in and around Boston. Stephen Maturin’s adventures in espionage and affaires-de-coeur were riveting. Really love these characters and think these books are next to flawless.
Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel)
For awhile, this is what everyone was talking about, so I jumped on the bandwagon. It’s familiar territory-the Tudors-but it’s an enjoyable novel about the fortunes of much-maligned Thomas Cromwell. An achievement in scholarship and imagination, rich, complex, full of character and effortless historical detail, particularly successful with Mary Tudor, Mary Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Thomas More, and Henry, of course. And kudos for constructing a convincing Cromwell from a dearth of historical information.
The Pig-Faced Lady of Manchester Square (Jan Bondeson)
I’ve been reading a lot Jan Bondeson because of the research involved with my poetry collection, but there’s more than one reason I keep coming back to his output. This was a meticulously-researched read, thoughtful, sensitive, and not without a sense of humor. Bondeson seemed a little less impish than the first book of his I read, The London Monster, but then this subject is a bit more close to the heart. He clearly has a lot of compassion for the likes of Julia Pastrana, the Tocci Brothers, and Daniel Cajanus—but he also seems politely fascinated by all this business-I think I’ve found a fellow enthusiast!
The Dinosaur Hunters (Deborah Cadbury)
This is a very thorough and meticulous, but narrative-driven, story of the first discoverers and classifiers of dinosaur fossils in England in the first 40 years of the 19th century. It’s a superb history/science book focusing as much on the characters as the fossils and the theories. You could really sympathize with the humanity of Gideon Mantell and Mary Anning and could be astonished by the arrogance of Richard Owen and Thomas Huxley. I found it extremely gripping despite all of this played out more than a hundred years before I was born-my lifelong obsession with dinosaurs was subsumed (or elevated) by the part humanity played in the discovery of them.
Life and Fate (Vasily Grossman)
Epic—it certainly draws parallels as the 20th century’s War and Peace (as I’m finding out first hand!). This is a massive, well-written and unflinching account of the battle of Stalingrad-for all that, it’s surprisingly fair and balanced (which is why the KGB must have seized it immediately after it was finished!). I don’t normally like books about war-this was an uphill struggle all the way-a real downer, but certainly one of those “books you must read” for the sake of your humanity.
Runners up: The Spy (James Fenimore Cooper) is supposed to be dull as dishwater, but I found it quite exciting and very pleasant reading. Considering this was the US’ first real novel set in its own locales and highlighting the Revolutionary War, I think it should be read far more than it is. But you don’t have to read it-it’ll be on Radio 4 next year! It may now be an unpopular choice, but I was quite moved by Dreams from My Father (Barack Obama). I thought the voice and the story were uniquely his, and he’s a solid, eloquent writer-even if some of the writing is speech-like. I felt after reading it that I’d done my civic duty AND had a good read. The Devil in Amber (Mark Gatiss) was an extremely well-written piece of fluff-it’s top of the class for its genre.
Showing posts with label top ten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label top ten. Show all posts
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
best radio 09
Top Ten Radio Plays, June-December 2009
10. The Beaux’ Stratagem (George Farquar)
A Restoration stage play about husbands and wives adapted, surprisingly, for radio. It was very silly but translated well as it was speeches, singing, and would NOT have benefited from a laugh track. The actors were having the times of their lives hamming it up- Boniface the innkeeper and his ale, for example. And I liked all the usual cracks about church, Frenchmen, the country, etc. It certainly had the flavor of Marriage of Figaro or Cosí fan Tutte if not all of the charm. At least the woman got her divorce at the end!
9. Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (Rob Grant & Doug Naylor)
Speaking of Red Dwarf, imagine my delight when I found this new instalment of the comedy on BBC7. It’s a multi-parter and I’m kind of cheating because I’ve just heard the first instalment, but so far it’s been very enjoyable. While technically it’s Chris Barrie (Rimmer) reading from the new book of the same name, his ability to do voices, plus the appropriate sound effects, make it almost a full-cast play. (His Dave Lister is quite miraculous!) I’m amazed at how well Red Dwarf translates to radio, but it’s all down the clever, cynical, silly writing.
8. Bleak Expectations (Mark Evans)
I listened to all but one of the third series of this Dickens spoof, and I have to say I found it quite addictive the more formulaic it became. It starred Tom Allen as the young Pip Bin, Anthony Head as his nemesis Mr Gently Benevolent, James Bachman as Pip Bin’s sidekick Harry Biscuit, and Geoffrey Whitehead as Wackwallop. Harry Biscuit’s inventions that never worked (“I need more swans!”) as well as his catchphrase “Harrumble!” pleased me to no end, as did Pip Bin being tortured by “cheeseboarding,” as did the dreadful puns (“the town of Coke and its suburb, Diet Coke”). Perhaps my favorite was A Sort of Fine Life De-Niced Completely, in which Mr Benevolent was disguised with a West Country accent and catapulted a metaphor-spinning urchin into a balloon.
7. Cadfael: Dead Man’s Ransom (Ellis Peters/Burt Cootes)
Narrated by Michael Kitchen, this play should wipe from your mind the version with Derek Jacobi and bring you closer to Cadfael’s Welsh roots. Philip Madoc was superb as the Benedictine sleuth (though I keep thinking it’s my former professor Nigel!). I often find narration in radio plays obtrusive, but this was fine. It had some great period music, and split into five parts seemed just about right— the cliffhangers, with one exception, were quite meaty.
6. Night Talker (Danny John-Jules)
No, I did not realize this was written by the Cat from Red Dwarf until just now when I thought the name sounded familiar. All thoughts of celebrity aside, this was a delightful gem broadcast on BBC7 in the days leading up to Halloween (among many very well-done thematic plays for the spookiest time of the year). For a 20-minute play this was superb. Night DJ Andy Stone is a jerk, putting his listeners and co-workers down, but in the course of a few minutes we learn he lost his twin brother, his birthday is Halloween, he hasn’t seen his parents in years, and he’s in love with his producer! Was it spooks in the studio? Sort of in the vein of Frank from last year--♥
5. Blue Veils and Golden Sands (Martin Wade)
Martin Wade seems to be showing up as often in the last few months as Nick Warburton did last year. That’s okay, he’s a competent writer and really shone in this unusual and, to a Doctor Who fan, highly interesting bio-drama. DW fans may already recognize the title. The subject is Delia Derbyshire, the lady who, in the 1960s, took Ron Grainer’s composition for the Doctor Who theme and used then-cutting edge Radiophonic Workshop techniques to render it. She wasn’t given credit for her contribution until much later, and to be honest, though I admired that a woman had made such a big contribution to DW in the ‘60s (like Verity Lambert), I didn’t know a thing about her. I had no idea that a) she went to Cambridge; b) that she financed it by selling presents people had given her; c) that she was a chronic alcoholic and socially inept; d) that she was brilliant and just wanted to be recognized; e) that she was totally bonkers! If these facts intrigue you, listen to this very moving, eye opening, and winningly acted (Sophie Thompson was great as Delia) play.
4. The Voyage of the Demeter (Robert Forrest)
I listened to this on Halloween in the dark, which was a bad move. I didn’t realize until the very end that this was basically fan fiction for Dracula, but at that point I didn’t care. It was scary, scary stuff. Marine voyages can be claustrophobic at the best of times, but all the actors ramped up their performances to give us the sounds of madness, of becoming unhinged, and Dracula himself was sophisticated and very scary. It was sufficiently free-standing to enjoy, but it helped if you knew that Dracula came from Romania (according to Stoker of course!) in boxes of earth aboard a Russian ship called the Demeter . . . A nice bookend for the adaptation of Dracula I heard on BBC7 in February.
3. The Penny Dreadfuls Present: Guy Fawkes (David Reed, Humphrey Ker, Thom Tuck)
I am not entirely clear how staged versions of radio plays recorded in front of a live audience work, but this one seemed to. It’s a version (half comedy, half history) of an event which all British children are taught at school- but, being an American, I only knew rudiments beyond what was explained to me in V for Vendetta. This set the record straight. Its humor was goofy, Horrible Histories-style. It was also intelligent and went very in depth into the characters and motivations. Percy’s studied dullness, Waad’s pantomime villainy mixed with thoughtful insight bounced wonderfully off Guy Fawkes’ zeal.
2. A Dangerous Thing (John Sessions)
I’m not sure what the dangerous thing is that’s referred to in the title. John Sessions was first known to me as the voice of Tom Baker in Dead Ringers and later it came to my knowledge that he had auditioned for the part of the Eighth Doctor. While I’m annoyed that such topics as this play can only come to radio with a heavyweight like him behind them (or maybe it’s sour grapes), I was heartened upon hearing this piece because it’s very similar to the style and subjects upon which I love to write. It’s a retrospective on the friendship between little Alexander Pope (John Sessions) and satiric Jonathan Swift (Timothy Spall). It combines John Adams with City of Vice with old skool historical writing— but that’s allowed because Pope and Swift can get away punning and prima-donna-ing. I love when you find a play that you strongly suspected would be your cup of tea, and it is.
1. Chimes of Midnight (Rob Shearman)
Just over a year ago, I heard the first two episodes of this Eighth Doctor/Charley story and knew it was going to be as good as they said it was. My only complaint is that it gets a bit talky in the third episode, but other than that it’s an almost flawless example of audio writing done well. It does have a seasonal theme (“Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Mrs Batterly’s plum pudding”), which perhaps invokes Dickens[1] (the play could certainly be said to have things in common with “Blink,” “The Unicorn and the Wasp,” “Kinda,” “Paradise Lost,” “Age of Steel,” “The End of the World,” etc). The opening could easily be clunky in the hands of a lesser writer, but the fact Charley and the Doctor materialize in darkness is great for audio listeners and forces them, as well as Charley, to use all of the five senses. It sets up a wonderfully intriguing mystery in an Edwardian house where time is behaving in all sorts of strange ways. Then there are the murders, all of them grotesque and surreal. Who is Edward Grove? Even if you think you have it figured out, you won’t guess the Frankenstein-like twist. The ending is so poignant and moving, tied up in Charley’s past and her love of the Doctor- it was perfect for the team that is India Fisher and Paul McGann. “We chose life.”
I should also mention:
I listened to quite a few of the BBC7 repeats of the second series of Mark Gatiss’ Man in Black, some of which were very weird indeed (there was a disturbing one where a man was about to get married and he was pursued by the phantom of his future self who’d become a drunken murderer due to the marriage; though perhaps the most memorable was Crawley being invaded by zombies).
I also listened to quite a few of Dickens Confidential by Mike Walker. I really liked the premise of these, but found some of the writing to be pat and too cutesy by half. It’s Dickens as a newspaper writer with his novelistic career just taking off. Recurring characters include budding reporters Agnes (posh, subjugated, and possibly eyed by Dickens) and Daniel (northern, bumbling, well-meaning). My favorite of the plays was Why Are We in Afghanistan? Dickens in these plays is a dreadful misogynist and class-ist as well as obsessed with social justice- probably as near to a balanced portrait of Dickens as we’re likely to get. I enjoyed the cynical tone about how the Crimea started. I also liked the bomb-on-balloon (only on radio- surprisingly the conventions like “look, we’re descending” were not irritating).
The Female Ghost, all directed by Marian Ann Carey, was a trio of very strong adaptations of ghost stories written by women with a distinctly feminine twist, just in time for Halloween. My favorite was “The Cold Embrace” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon; Jonathan Firth was perfectly cast as a selfish German artist who abandons his fiancée who subsequently drowns herself. The final scene is at the Paris Opera Shrovetide Ball, which of course I loved. “Man-Sized Marble” was unnerving; two poor but happy artists in their little cottage, the superstitious local woman, the Irish rationalist doctor . . . and two stone villains who come out of their tombs to kill them! “Afterward” was just one of many plays that featured Americans; not surprisingly as it was written by Edith Wharton.
I heard three of The Newly Discovered Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Anthony Her, a silly spoof much in the vein of Bleak Expectations, though perhaps even more outrageous, with Roy Hudd as Holmes and Geoffrey Holland as Watson. Holmes being described as a “toffee-nosed ponce” never ceased to amuse me, as did his constant bitch-fests with Mrs Hudson. The stories included Tweeny Sod and his pornographic lantern shows and the slightly offensive tale of a Chinese botanist/drug dealer/laundrette. The best joke was easily when Watson asked the name of the music hall singer, “Ellie Mentry, my dear Watson.” Also it had a real knack for sly winks at the listener: “By God there’s an orchestra in here with us!”
It’s very seldom I listen to readings of books as serialized on radio, but I stuck with The Canterville Ghost as read by Alistair McGowan because I’d wanted to read the book for a long time. It was well-realized, funny, and sad. I loved how the theme music communicated all the moods perfectly. Also again the plucky, rational, vulgar Americans tearing down British superstition!
I’m ashamed to say I listened to the first three episodes of Chain Gang and then stopped and never wrote in with a storyline, despite the suitably sci fi direction in which things were headed (it was written by Shearman, after all!).
10. The Beaux’ Stratagem (George Farquar)
A Restoration stage play about husbands and wives adapted, surprisingly, for radio. It was very silly but translated well as it was speeches, singing, and would NOT have benefited from a laugh track. The actors were having the times of their lives hamming it up- Boniface the innkeeper and his ale, for example. And I liked all the usual cracks about church, Frenchmen, the country, etc. It certainly had the flavor of Marriage of Figaro or Cosí fan Tutte if not all of the charm. At least the woman got her divorce at the end!
9. Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (Rob Grant & Doug Naylor)
Speaking of Red Dwarf, imagine my delight when I found this new instalment of the comedy on BBC7. It’s a multi-parter and I’m kind of cheating because I’ve just heard the first instalment, but so far it’s been very enjoyable. While technically it’s Chris Barrie (Rimmer) reading from the new book of the same name, his ability to do voices, plus the appropriate sound effects, make it almost a full-cast play. (His Dave Lister is quite miraculous!) I’m amazed at how well Red Dwarf translates to radio, but it’s all down the clever, cynical, silly writing.
8. Bleak Expectations (Mark Evans)
I listened to all but one of the third series of this Dickens spoof, and I have to say I found it quite addictive the more formulaic it became. It starred Tom Allen as the young Pip Bin, Anthony Head as his nemesis Mr Gently Benevolent, James Bachman as Pip Bin’s sidekick Harry Biscuit, and Geoffrey Whitehead as Wackwallop. Harry Biscuit’s inventions that never worked (“I need more swans!”) as well as his catchphrase “Harrumble!” pleased me to no end, as did Pip Bin being tortured by “cheeseboarding,” as did the dreadful puns (“the town of Coke and its suburb, Diet Coke”). Perhaps my favorite was A Sort of Fine Life De-Niced Completely, in which Mr Benevolent was disguised with a West Country accent and catapulted a metaphor-spinning urchin into a balloon.
7. Cadfael: Dead Man’s Ransom (Ellis Peters/Burt Cootes)
Narrated by Michael Kitchen, this play should wipe from your mind the version with Derek Jacobi and bring you closer to Cadfael’s Welsh roots. Philip Madoc was superb as the Benedictine sleuth (though I keep thinking it’s my former professor Nigel!). I often find narration in radio plays obtrusive, but this was fine. It had some great period music, and split into five parts seemed just about right— the cliffhangers, with one exception, were quite meaty.
6. Night Talker (Danny John-Jules)
No, I did not realize this was written by the Cat from Red Dwarf until just now when I thought the name sounded familiar. All thoughts of celebrity aside, this was a delightful gem broadcast on BBC7 in the days leading up to Halloween (among many very well-done thematic plays for the spookiest time of the year). For a 20-minute play this was superb. Night DJ Andy Stone is a jerk, putting his listeners and co-workers down, but in the course of a few minutes we learn he lost his twin brother, his birthday is Halloween, he hasn’t seen his parents in years, and he’s in love with his producer! Was it spooks in the studio? Sort of in the vein of Frank from last year--♥
5. Blue Veils and Golden Sands (Martin Wade)
Martin Wade seems to be showing up as often in the last few months as Nick Warburton did last year. That’s okay, he’s a competent writer and really shone in this unusual and, to a Doctor Who fan, highly interesting bio-drama. DW fans may already recognize the title. The subject is Delia Derbyshire, the lady who, in the 1960s, took Ron Grainer’s composition for the Doctor Who theme and used then-cutting edge Radiophonic Workshop techniques to render it. She wasn’t given credit for her contribution until much later, and to be honest, though I admired that a woman had made such a big contribution to DW in the ‘60s (like Verity Lambert), I didn’t know a thing about her. I had no idea that a) she went to Cambridge; b) that she financed it by selling presents people had given her; c) that she was a chronic alcoholic and socially inept; d) that she was brilliant and just wanted to be recognized; e) that she was totally bonkers! If these facts intrigue you, listen to this very moving, eye opening, and winningly acted (Sophie Thompson was great as Delia) play.
4. The Voyage of the Demeter (Robert Forrest)
I listened to this on Halloween in the dark, which was a bad move. I didn’t realize until the very end that this was basically fan fiction for Dracula, but at that point I didn’t care. It was scary, scary stuff. Marine voyages can be claustrophobic at the best of times, but all the actors ramped up their performances to give us the sounds of madness, of becoming unhinged, and Dracula himself was sophisticated and very scary. It was sufficiently free-standing to enjoy, but it helped if you knew that Dracula came from Romania (according to Stoker of course!) in boxes of earth aboard a Russian ship called the Demeter . . . A nice bookend for the adaptation of Dracula I heard on BBC7 in February.
3. The Penny Dreadfuls Present: Guy Fawkes (David Reed, Humphrey Ker, Thom Tuck)
I am not entirely clear how staged versions of radio plays recorded in front of a live audience work, but this one seemed to. It’s a version (half comedy, half history) of an event which all British children are taught at school- but, being an American, I only knew rudiments beyond what was explained to me in V for Vendetta. This set the record straight. Its humor was goofy, Horrible Histories-style. It was also intelligent and went very in depth into the characters and motivations. Percy’s studied dullness, Waad’s pantomime villainy mixed with thoughtful insight bounced wonderfully off Guy Fawkes’ zeal.
2. A Dangerous Thing (John Sessions)
I’m not sure what the dangerous thing is that’s referred to in the title. John Sessions was first known to me as the voice of Tom Baker in Dead Ringers and later it came to my knowledge that he had auditioned for the part of the Eighth Doctor. While I’m annoyed that such topics as this play can only come to radio with a heavyweight like him behind them (or maybe it’s sour grapes), I was heartened upon hearing this piece because it’s very similar to the style and subjects upon which I love to write. It’s a retrospective on the friendship between little Alexander Pope (John Sessions) and satiric Jonathan Swift (Timothy Spall). It combines John Adams with City of Vice with old skool historical writing— but that’s allowed because Pope and Swift can get away punning and prima-donna-ing. I love when you find a play that you strongly suspected would be your cup of tea, and it is.
1. Chimes of Midnight (Rob Shearman)
Just over a year ago, I heard the first two episodes of this Eighth Doctor/Charley story and knew it was going to be as good as they said it was. My only complaint is that it gets a bit talky in the third episode, but other than that it’s an almost flawless example of audio writing done well. It does have a seasonal theme (“Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Mrs Batterly’s plum pudding”), which perhaps invokes Dickens[1] (the play could certainly be said to have things in common with “Blink,” “The Unicorn and the Wasp,” “Kinda,” “Paradise Lost,” “Age of Steel,” “The End of the World,” etc). The opening could easily be clunky in the hands of a lesser writer, but the fact Charley and the Doctor materialize in darkness is great for audio listeners and forces them, as well as Charley, to use all of the five senses. It sets up a wonderfully intriguing mystery in an Edwardian house where time is behaving in all sorts of strange ways. Then there are the murders, all of them grotesque and surreal. Who is Edward Grove? Even if you think you have it figured out, you won’t guess the Frankenstein-like twist. The ending is so poignant and moving, tied up in Charley’s past and her love of the Doctor- it was perfect for the team that is India Fisher and Paul McGann. “We chose life.”
I should also mention:
I listened to quite a few of the BBC7 repeats of the second series of Mark Gatiss’ Man in Black, some of which were very weird indeed (there was a disturbing one where a man was about to get married and he was pursued by the phantom of his future self who’d become a drunken murderer due to the marriage; though perhaps the most memorable was Crawley being invaded by zombies).
I also listened to quite a few of Dickens Confidential by Mike Walker. I really liked the premise of these, but found some of the writing to be pat and too cutesy by half. It’s Dickens as a newspaper writer with his novelistic career just taking off. Recurring characters include budding reporters Agnes (posh, subjugated, and possibly eyed by Dickens) and Daniel (northern, bumbling, well-meaning). My favorite of the plays was Why Are We in Afghanistan? Dickens in these plays is a dreadful misogynist and class-ist as well as obsessed with social justice- probably as near to a balanced portrait of Dickens as we’re likely to get. I enjoyed the cynical tone about how the Crimea started. I also liked the bomb-on-balloon (only on radio- surprisingly the conventions like “look, we’re descending” were not irritating).
The Female Ghost, all directed by Marian Ann Carey, was a trio of very strong adaptations of ghost stories written by women with a distinctly feminine twist, just in time for Halloween. My favorite was “The Cold Embrace” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon; Jonathan Firth was perfectly cast as a selfish German artist who abandons his fiancée who subsequently drowns herself. The final scene is at the Paris Opera Shrovetide Ball, which of course I loved. “Man-Sized Marble” was unnerving; two poor but happy artists in their little cottage, the superstitious local woman, the Irish rationalist doctor . . . and two stone villains who come out of their tombs to kill them! “Afterward” was just one of many plays that featured Americans; not surprisingly as it was written by Edith Wharton.
I heard three of The Newly Discovered Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Anthony Her, a silly spoof much in the vein of Bleak Expectations, though perhaps even more outrageous, with Roy Hudd as Holmes and Geoffrey Holland as Watson. Holmes being described as a “toffee-nosed ponce” never ceased to amuse me, as did his constant bitch-fests with Mrs Hudson. The stories included Tweeny Sod and his pornographic lantern shows and the slightly offensive tale of a Chinese botanist/drug dealer/laundrette. The best joke was easily when Watson asked the name of the music hall singer, “Ellie Mentry, my dear Watson.” Also it had a real knack for sly winks at the listener: “By God there’s an orchestra in here with us!”
It’s very seldom I listen to readings of books as serialized on radio, but I stuck with The Canterville Ghost as read by Alistair McGowan because I’d wanted to read the book for a long time. It was well-realized, funny, and sad. I loved how the theme music communicated all the moods perfectly. Also again the plucky, rational, vulgar Americans tearing down British superstition!
I’m ashamed to say I listened to the first three episodes of Chain Gang and then stopped and never wrote in with a storyline, despite the suitably sci fi direction in which things were headed (it was written by Shearman, after all!).
top books 2009
[I wrote this on December 23, 2009 but couldn't post it right away]
I eschewed a strictly top ten ranked favorite books of the year because the top tier just didn’t add up to ten for me, and while all the books in the next tier were highly deserving, I couldn’t really elevate them. So we’ll just call it a conglomeration of books!
Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (Wendy Cope)
I’ve put poetry on this list for the first time even though I think I separated it out last year with the graphic novels. This is because I read a lot of poetry this year, and a lot of outstanding poetry. I absolutely loved this collection by Wendy Cope; she’s one of my favorite poets. I love her wit, sarcasm, self-deprecation, but she never seems to stray into all-out angst, and she’s never apologetic for being what she is.
Short Trips: How the Doctor Changed My Life (ed. Simon Guerrier)
I have separated out my Doctor Who books even though I enjoyed many of them; however, this collection of short stories was so good I really thought it deserved to be on this list. These were all the first-time writers who were judged to be good enough in the contest in 2007, and I had good things to say about almost every story. Whether or not it’s fair to compare them to writers who write Who all the time, who have skill but have perhaps lost the wide-eyed spark, this collection has many talented writers and many enjoyable stories.
The Writer’s Tale (Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook)
This doesn’t really count as a Doctor Who book as it’s more a book about writing, and one of the best on the subject I have ever read. I’ve digested many in this genre- from Strunk & White to Natalie Goldberg- and few of them are both so candid and so encouraging. Y.A.N.A is what RTD wrote in the context of “Utopia,” but that also seems to be the message to any writer who recognizes crippling self-doubt, absurd procrastination, late night bursts of creativity, and riding by the seat of your pants as part of the literary endeavour. How comforting to know it happens, too, to the greats. Also, as far as technique for screenwriting/telewriting at least, it’s extremely useful. Also very funny and so enjoyable you’re left wanting more despite its 500+ pages.
Rapture (Carol Ann Duffy)
I’m not such a wholehearted fan of Carol Ann Duffy as I have been of Wendy Cope, though I have liked several of her poems. However, this collection was elegant, self-contained, and almost every poem touching. It charted a love affair that blossomed and then faded. It’s traditionally very hard to write love poetry in all the different stages: when we haven’t got it, it’s comparatively easy; after a point when you’re at the ecstatic stage you run out of things to say. However, I thought she covered every nuance of the stages of love with remarkable empathy and feeling.
Dear Fatty (Dawn French)
I seem to have read a lot of celebrity autobiographies this year, a genre I hitherto looked at with disdain. However, I can see their appeal (especially if well-written). Dawn French’s book really made me laugh on nearly every page. As many of these books have a “gimmick,” French’s was her life divided into chapters as letters to differentpeople significant to different parts of her life. Many letters were addressed to her father, who committed suicide when she was in her teens. I loved her letters to her daughter and to her husband Lenny Henry; my heart was hugely warmed by their love story. The Fatty of the title, by the way, is Jennifer Saunders, to whom many of the letters are also addressed.
Too Many Mothers (Roberta Taylor)
This is another sort of in the same style, but quite different in content and context. Besides, Roberta Taylor wasn’t a “celebrity” to me in the sense Dawn French or John Barrowman were- I only knew her in the context of her role in a Peter Davison Big Finish play and as a character in The Bill. So I was quite unprepared for how much I enjoyed this candid and well-structured memoir. Taylor’s is, in my opinion, the best kind of “creative nonfiction” in imagining narratives for her grandmother, mother, aunts, and other family members during the first half of the twentieth century. Subtitled “an East End childhood,” the story is often dark and bleak but also funny and a portrait of a family of strong women.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie)
I have observed that books my sister recommends are either total misses with me or, less often, really succeed. This is one of the latter. I’d seen Alexie deliver a talk at UNM in 2007 but had never read anything of his. This partial memoir, partial fiction was also a partial graphic memoir with delightfully forthright illustrations. Like Alexie, Junior comes from a Reservation family, was born with water on the brain which accounts for his slightly goofy appearance, and goes to school off the Rez in order to increase his chances of ever becoming someone. The book is alternatively hilarious, sobering, and (I think) accessible even to white girls like myself.
Desolation Island (Patrick O’Brian)
What can I say? I left The Mauritius Command off last year’s list because I honestly didn’t think it was among the top ten, but Desolation Island, the fifth book in the Master and Commander series, exceeds all expectations once more. How O’Brian combines great danger and intricate plot with a convincing portrait of 19th century seamanship with superbly lifelike and irresistible characters is always a joy to read. In this adventure Captain Jack Aubrey is charged with delivering convicts to Australia but the disease, natural disaster, and mutiny he encounters tests all his powers of courage and valour. Likewise, Dr. Stephen Maturin is on board and must work his dual roles as spy and physician while coping with his constant heartbreak over Diana Villiers. Unmissable.
Runners up: Anything Goes (John & Carole Barrowman) is another in the celebrity autobiography strand, but extremely funny and for the most part, remarkably well-told. Of special mention are the photographs embedded inside. I plan to read the “sequel.” The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb) is probably the most mind-altering book I read this year, though since it’s seated firmly in the realm of economics and probability (like Stumbling on Happiness last year, if I recall correctly) I did glaze over some sections. It is one that probably everyone should read, though like Stumbling on Happiness anyone looking for a quick fix is likely to be disappointed, as both books tell you what you can’t predict rather than how to predict anything of significance. The Bridges of Madison County was recommended by my friend Nasim as one of the books that changed her life, and indeed while I went in expecting a great deal of soppy soap opera, the book’s brevity and simplicity matched the depth of its feeling and I admit I cried while reading it. Ways of Seeing (John Berger) was another high-brow book about art criticism that nevertheless had much of relevance to say. Living to Tell the Tale (Gabriel Garcia Márquez) was possibly the best book I’ve yet read by this talented author. Yet again it was autobiographical but with the dreamlike, circumlocutious storytelling one comes to expect from mí papito rico. Anyone expecting insights into the master’s life on par with those palpable ones from RTD in A Writer’s Tale will be disappointed, but on a more general level, much of the inspiration for Márquez’s oeuvre becomes delightfully clear. Real Swansea (Nigel Jenkins) should be required reading for anyone remotely connected with the “ugly, lovely town.”
I eschewed a strictly top ten ranked favorite books of the year because the top tier just didn’t add up to ten for me, and while all the books in the next tier were highly deserving, I couldn’t really elevate them. So we’ll just call it a conglomeration of books!
Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (Wendy Cope)
I’ve put poetry on this list for the first time even though I think I separated it out last year with the graphic novels. This is because I read a lot of poetry this year, and a lot of outstanding poetry. I absolutely loved this collection by Wendy Cope; she’s one of my favorite poets. I love her wit, sarcasm, self-deprecation, but she never seems to stray into all-out angst, and she’s never apologetic for being what she is.
Short Trips: How the Doctor Changed My Life (ed. Simon Guerrier)
I have separated out my Doctor Who books even though I enjoyed many of them; however, this collection of short stories was so good I really thought it deserved to be on this list. These were all the first-time writers who were judged to be good enough in the contest in 2007, and I had good things to say about almost every story. Whether or not it’s fair to compare them to writers who write Who all the time, who have skill but have perhaps lost the wide-eyed spark, this collection has many talented writers and many enjoyable stories.
The Writer’s Tale (Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook)
This doesn’t really count as a Doctor Who book as it’s more a book about writing, and one of the best on the subject I have ever read. I’ve digested many in this genre- from Strunk & White to Natalie Goldberg- and few of them are both so candid and so encouraging. Y.A.N.A is what RTD wrote in the context of “Utopia,” but that also seems to be the message to any writer who recognizes crippling self-doubt, absurd procrastination, late night bursts of creativity, and riding by the seat of your pants as part of the literary endeavour. How comforting to know it happens, too, to the greats. Also, as far as technique for screenwriting/telewriting at least, it’s extremely useful. Also very funny and so enjoyable you’re left wanting more despite its 500+ pages.
Rapture (Carol Ann Duffy)
I’m not such a wholehearted fan of Carol Ann Duffy as I have been of Wendy Cope, though I have liked several of her poems. However, this collection was elegant, self-contained, and almost every poem touching. It charted a love affair that blossomed and then faded. It’s traditionally very hard to write love poetry in all the different stages: when we haven’t got it, it’s comparatively easy; after a point when you’re at the ecstatic stage you run out of things to say. However, I thought she covered every nuance of the stages of love with remarkable empathy and feeling.
Dear Fatty (Dawn French)
I seem to have read a lot of celebrity autobiographies this year, a genre I hitherto looked at with disdain. However, I can see their appeal (especially if well-written). Dawn French’s book really made me laugh on nearly every page. As many of these books have a “gimmick,” French’s was her life divided into chapters as letters to differentpeople significant to different parts of her life. Many letters were addressed to her father, who committed suicide when she was in her teens. I loved her letters to her daughter and to her husband Lenny Henry; my heart was hugely warmed by their love story. The Fatty of the title, by the way, is Jennifer Saunders, to whom many of the letters are also addressed.
Too Many Mothers (Roberta Taylor)
This is another sort of in the same style, but quite different in content and context. Besides, Roberta Taylor wasn’t a “celebrity” to me in the sense Dawn French or John Barrowman were- I only knew her in the context of her role in a Peter Davison Big Finish play and as a character in The Bill. So I was quite unprepared for how much I enjoyed this candid and well-structured memoir. Taylor’s is, in my opinion, the best kind of “creative nonfiction” in imagining narratives for her grandmother, mother, aunts, and other family members during the first half of the twentieth century. Subtitled “an East End childhood,” the story is often dark and bleak but also funny and a portrait of a family of strong women.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie)
I have observed that books my sister recommends are either total misses with me or, less often, really succeed. This is one of the latter. I’d seen Alexie deliver a talk at UNM in 2007 but had never read anything of his. This partial memoir, partial fiction was also a partial graphic memoir with delightfully forthright illustrations. Like Alexie, Junior comes from a Reservation family, was born with water on the brain which accounts for his slightly goofy appearance, and goes to school off the Rez in order to increase his chances of ever becoming someone. The book is alternatively hilarious, sobering, and (I think) accessible even to white girls like myself.
Desolation Island (Patrick O’Brian)
What can I say? I left The Mauritius Command off last year’s list because I honestly didn’t think it was among the top ten, but Desolation Island, the fifth book in the Master and Commander series, exceeds all expectations once more. How O’Brian combines great danger and intricate plot with a convincing portrait of 19th century seamanship with superbly lifelike and irresistible characters is always a joy to read. In this adventure Captain Jack Aubrey is charged with delivering convicts to Australia but the disease, natural disaster, and mutiny he encounters tests all his powers of courage and valour. Likewise, Dr. Stephen Maturin is on board and must work his dual roles as spy and physician while coping with his constant heartbreak over Diana Villiers. Unmissable.
Runners up: Anything Goes (John & Carole Barrowman) is another in the celebrity autobiography strand, but extremely funny and for the most part, remarkably well-told. Of special mention are the photographs embedded inside. I plan to read the “sequel.” The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb) is probably the most mind-altering book I read this year, though since it’s seated firmly in the realm of economics and probability (like Stumbling on Happiness last year, if I recall correctly) I did glaze over some sections. It is one that probably everyone should read, though like Stumbling on Happiness anyone looking for a quick fix is likely to be disappointed, as both books tell you what you can’t predict rather than how to predict anything of significance. The Bridges of Madison County was recommended by my friend Nasim as one of the books that changed her life, and indeed while I went in expecting a great deal of soppy soap opera, the book’s brevity and simplicity matched the depth of its feeling and I admit I cried while reading it. Ways of Seeing (John Berger) was another high-brow book about art criticism that nevertheless had much of relevance to say. Living to Tell the Tale (Gabriel Garcia Márquez) was possibly the best book I’ve yet read by this talented author. Yet again it was autobiographical but with the dreamlike, circumlocutious storytelling one comes to expect from mí papito rico. Anyone expecting insights into the master’s life on par with those palpable ones from RTD in A Writer’s Tale will be disappointed, but on a more general level, much of the inspiration for Márquez’s oeuvre becomes delightfully clear. Real Swansea (Nigel Jenkins) should be required reading for anyone remotely connected with the “ugly, lovely town.”
Saturday, December 13, 2008
top fifteen radio plays
Top Fifteen Radio Plays, July-December 2008
Top Five Doctor Who (DWM) Comics
Top Ten Batman Stories
Top Ten Graphic Novels
Top Ten Books
Top Fifteen Radio Plays
Top Ten Fan Fic
I don’t think I knew really what a radio play was when I decided to take the course as part of my creative writing MA spring 2007. Nevertheless, I quickly learned that I loved the medium, and some people at least thought I had an affinity for writing for it. Whether that’s true or not, I can’t stop the radio plays from coming from my keyboard. While I’m here in Britain I’m making a concerted effort to listen to as many radio plays as possible, and now that I have a laptop, an internet connection, and iPlayer, it’s very easy to do that.
I won’t pretend that I don’t have preferences as far as radio plays are concerned. I do tend to listen to historical plays, but I try for a variety. I have been keeping track of what I listen to in order to notice trends, pick out good writers, directors, and actors, also so I can write lists like these! Know your enemy, or know your market, however you prefer to see it. I also just enjoy radio, though radio plays do require a certain level of concentration (which is perhaps why no one else my age seems to listen to them). If you consider how many new plays Radio 4 alone seems to generate, the fact I listened to 60 between mid-July and mid-December is not as impressive as it originally sounds. It was, however, very difficult to pick favorites, which is why I cheated and went with 15!
15. Murder Every Monday (Pamela Branch/Mark Gatiss) I’m really hard on radio comedy. Even if I’ve enjoyed it at the time, I always wonder if it would appeal as much if I heard it as much a second time. Usually I conclude that it wouldn’t, and good radio comedies go on the back burner in my memory. But that isn’t fair, especially when they’re as clever and funny as this adaptation by Mark Gatiss (the first of many Doctor Who luminaries in this list ...). This is fluff, but it’s very English, very Gatiss (“rather!”)--a sort of radio amalgamation of Gosford Park and “The Unicorn and the Wasp.” Mark Gatiss also plays a character, and I must say it was very disconcerting to hear him kissing all these women! There were some very funny jabs at Americans, excellent sound production, and you could tell the actors were having fun hamming it up.
14. Caligari (Amanda Dalton) This was a very ambitious experiment, and even if perhaps it didn’t all come together, it was very memorable. It’s an attempt to shift German Expressionism from the silent film--The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari0-into radio. I hadn’t seen the film until after I heard the play, so I went out and rented it (this was right around Halloween). Both play and film share an atmosphere of dreamy menace, where nothing is quite what it seems, and both are quite frightening in places (or I should say, disturbing). Caligari himself did not have a speaking role in the play, but Césare, his sideshow somnambulist, was sung by a counter-tenor. This is very interesting in regards to the film, in which Césare did not speak. The play also added a militant soldier-fool (with a northern accent) who was a particularly well-realized character (for passing judgement on World War I).
13. Dover and the Unkindest Cut (Joyce Porter) This was a bit long (I tend to think 45 minutes is the ideal length for a radio play) but very, very funny. It had to do with a detective called to a Welsh village to investigate dismemberment, though it was chiefly told from the detective’s assistant’s perspective. From that perspective, the detective was a fruit loop and so were all the occupants of the village. The Chief Constable was played by Philip Madoc, who you hear a lot on radio, and who sounds just like my former poetry tutor, so that is always disconcerting. I found it lampooned Welshmen and Englishmen in equal measure, and the women in the village--well, they were something else!
12. Frank (Ian McMillan) I really didn’t like this for the first few minutes and was considering turning it off, but I persevered. It was altogether too silly, obsessed with rhubarb--and then the play finally got going and started to make me laugh. The idea of a frustrated Yorkshire rhubarb farmer wanting to get his dole benefits by making his doppelganger do his work is funny enough (and how English!). But the fact that Frankie “the monster” is Scottish and far sexier than Frank his maker is outrageous. I also really liked the ending--very sly. This was the play on Halloween, by the way.
11. Doctor Who: The Zygon Who Fell to Earth (Paul Magrs)I don’t know if it’s cheating to include BBC7 plays, particularly Big Finish, but I’m going to anyway. I was so excited this year to have gotten to hear the Eighth Doctor’s new radio season with Lucie Miller--I heard all of the plays but one. They were all great, but the two on this list were good enough to stand up with the “normal” radio plays. You can always count on Magrs to be whimsical and weird, but I was really touched by this play of his. He writes comedy beautifully. His barely-disguised Zygons are hilarious (though apparently continuity was getting its wires crossed as the Eighth Doctor and Lucie are in the Lake District here in the ‘70s and then the Tenth Doctor and Martha will be there again in 1909 ...). But he also achieves pathos and sympathy for a Zygon who falls in love with a human, and brings a surprising and bittersweet twist. As usual Sheridan Smith as Lucie shines, but McGann takes a bit of a backseat in this one. Oh, and the music’s good.
10. The Art of Conversation (Dylan Thomas) I heard this play’s world premiere at my new workplace, the Dylan Thomas Centre, during the Dylan Thomas Festival in November. It was discovered by Thomas’ latest biographer among some papers in Texas (?!) and was apparently never produced though it was commissioned during a time when Thomas was writing propaganda for the British war effort. It’s a virtuoso piece, but uneasy--I can’t tell if Thomas’ world-weary cynicism in people’s garrulousness is genuine or a mockery. Parts of it are very funny, very witty, and the adaptation and effects are for the most part very good. Philip Madoc plays the narrator, and to acquire Richard Burton’s “To begin at the beginning” apparently cost more than the rest of the play put together.
9. The Late Mr Shakespeare (Robert Nye) While I enjoyed the fact this story was about Shakespeare, what I liked even more about it was its meta-fictional approach. Jim Broadbent is a child actor handpicked by Shakespeare who, at 81, recounts his life in a garret above a whorehouse during the London Fire. The actor Pickleherring makes an engaging narrator, but what’s more, he splits himself into two selves, his younger (played by George Longworth) and his older, and then has these selves play off each other. It culminates in the older Pickleherring playing Shakespeare’s father and the younger playing Queen Elizabeth!
8. Tulips in Winter (Michele Wandor) My two problems with this were that it was too long (a Radio 3 hour-long play, I believe), and the device of the Angel, which was interesting and even hilarious when interacting with Spinoza, but when mouthing oddities came off as a bit pretentious and annoying. Otherwise, though, I really enjoyed this grand story of Spinoza and his excommunication from the Dutch Orthodox Jewish community. It had such an array of 17th century stars—Cromwell, Downing, and an especially excellent Rembrandt, played by Timothy Spall. Gabriel Woolf even lent his distinctive voice. The religious element was always presented directly and forthrightly, which made it seem even more natural as opposed to some sort of historical pastiche. It managed to use simple images and an arresting soundtrack to bring the story to life.
7. Doctor Who: Max Warp (Jonathan Morris) This was my first Eighth Doctor play, and I did not expect to like it, given the setting and general plot. But I loved it. I never thought a play on this subject--parodying space stories as well as Top Gear--could be so funny or so engaging. McGann and Smith were wonderful together. Lucie is a distinct companion. The sound quality is superb, and Morris really knows how to create a full-sounding audio landscape. You didn’t need tons of characters nor any kind of romantic relationship with the Doctor and companion for a great tale, imaginative and fun. James Fleet and Graham Garden were excellent as well.
6. Worktown (Michael Symmonds Roberts) This was an oddity, but I found myself smiling through every second of it. It was a bit like Under Milk Wood for the 21st century, using a photograph of 1930s Bolton as a springboard for an imaginative, surreal story. It earned is rather staid narration style because of the incongruence of its stories. Absurd but never quaint situations including romance in the snake oil trade, a young boy terrified of cock fighting, motor accidents, a man with dogs. And it featured, rather surprisingly, very lively jazz trios from dogs and cows!! (Only on radio.)
5. Torchwood: Lost Souls (Joe Lidster) This was way too much fun. I wasn’t sure how this would pan out--I wasn’t sure if Torchwood would translate to radio well. But it was fab. It’s Lidster, so it’s dark, full of death, and necessarily science-technical. But, because it was radio, exposition and explanation were not out of place when tempered by humor and strong performances. Much of it was uproariously funny--everyone was laughing when Ianto was declared Ambassador for Wales with Jack as his assistant and Gwen as his wife. I was very pleased at the way it dealt with the deaths of Owen and Toshiko. The sound techniques were quite impressive, and parts of it made me shiver. May I say that Freema Agyeman is perhaps a better actress on radio, too?
4. A Tokyo Murder (John Dryden/Miriam Smith) This three-parter (45 minute segments) surprised me utterly. Again, it was not something I expected I would like. The first part described the frustrated murder investigation by the female DI, played by Rachel Ferguson, into a missing British girl who was last seen at a school in Japan. Besides the intrigue at this stage, I was really curious to see if the DI and her Japanese counterpart, played by Takuya Matsumoto, were going to pay attention to the sparks that were flying between them. Alas, we never found out, as the second part went back in time to the girl’s murder, so that the characters we thought we knew in the first part (the girl’s roommate, Japanese boyfriend, American colleague) cleverly revealed themselves. The third part, which let me down slightly, was her parents trying to find her killer. The performances were fantastic, a more successful feat than Lost in Translation on ex-pats in Japan- more cynical, but well-structured, with meaty characters. I looked forward to it for the three days it was on, and the storytelling techniques were disarmingly simple.
3. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Victor Hugo/Alex Bulmer) This is one of my favorite books of all time, and while many have adapted it, I was really knocked out by this version, again in three parts. It’s a Graeae production, which is a disabled-led company, and deaf actor David Bower plays Quasimodo. He is amazing and very moving in the role, managing to pack all the profundity, simplicity, confusion and pathos of the Hugo character in. Esmeralda, played by Romani actress Candis Nergaard, is much stronger than in the book, though still earnestly in love with her precious Phoebus, and also much more tolerant and empathetic than her book counterpart. Kevin Doyle is also superb as Frollo, effortlessly marrying all the facets of his character. It was streamlined, of course--no emerald bag, Gringoire, Court of Miracles, torture scene, etc--but it was sensitively done, surprisingly faithful to the core message and the main Gothic story. Great music and sound production. It made me cry!
2. Fridays When It Rains (Nick Warburton) Overall this is one of the best radio thrillers I have ever heard. I have since figured out that Warburton uses the same motifs a lot, and that somewhat lessens the startling originality, but that’s of little consequence. This was creepy in the extreme with some excellent mood music. Starring only Lyndsey Marshall as the girl and Clive Swift as the man, the suspense and the dialogue were perfectly pitched. Swift was terrifying. I remember sitting in the living room staring out the window gripping my seat because I was on the edge of it! The end didn’t make sense entirely- -maybe I needed to listen to it a second time--but there’s no doubt I loved the fact it took place entirely on a steam train in 1910, 1964, and the present day. This is what radio can do!
1. HMS Surprise (Patrick O’Brian/Roger Danes) This should be no surprise. One of my favorite books of all time adapted as a three-part radio play? Yes! It was not easy to divide the book into three parts and keep the tension going, but it was done masterfully. The sound production quality was high class, very evocative. The voices for Aubrey and Maturin took a bit of getting used to, but Stephen in particular was absolutely perfect. (By the time I read The Mauritius Command, I was hearing David Robb rather than Russell Crowe and Richard Dillane rather than Paul Bettany in my mind.) It broke my heart to have the end of the play be Stephen’s pitiable reaction to Diana’s rejection (and by the way, I wasn’t sure about Adjoa Andoh as Diana, but she was great). Audio is, sukrprisingly, perfectly suited for some of O’Brian’s best one-liners. I was also impressed with what they did with Dil (her death was the end to part two). Obviously they had to sex things up a bit, which they did in the form of Jack and an old flame, and I think a bit of Jack/Sophie. Diana and Stephen only got one interrupted kiss, but I don’t mind telling you, it was hot. O’Brian, I think, would be very proud of this excellent, well-rounded adaptation.
Some other highlights of included The Babington Plot (Michael Butt), Prayer Mask (David Pownall), Boscobel (Ian Curteis), Memorials to the Missing (Stephen Wyatt) , Away Day (D J Britton), Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mr. Hitler (Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran), and The Pattern of Painful Adventures (Stephen Wakelam).
And finally ...
I feel I have to mention Doctor Who: Chimes of Midnight (Rob Shearman) and The Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Leroux/Barnaby Edwards). I started listening to them on BBC7 but won’t be able to finish them because I’m going to the US for Christmas. I was so impressed by the adaptation of POTO that I bought it and will be listening to it in its entirety on the flight (stay tuned). I am very tempted to buy Chimes of Midnight because it is amazing, and I can’t stand not knowing the ending.
Thank God for radio drama!
Top Five Doctor Who (DWM) Comics
Top Ten Batman Stories
Top Ten Graphic Novels
Top Ten Books
Top Fifteen Radio Plays
Top Ten Fan Fic
I don’t think I knew really what a radio play was when I decided to take the course as part of my creative writing MA spring 2007. Nevertheless, I quickly learned that I loved the medium, and some people at least thought I had an affinity for writing for it. Whether that’s true or not, I can’t stop the radio plays from coming from my keyboard. While I’m here in Britain I’m making a concerted effort to listen to as many radio plays as possible, and now that I have a laptop, an internet connection, and iPlayer, it’s very easy to do that.
I won’t pretend that I don’t have preferences as far as radio plays are concerned. I do tend to listen to historical plays, but I try for a variety. I have been keeping track of what I listen to in order to notice trends, pick out good writers, directors, and actors, also so I can write lists like these! Know your enemy, or know your market, however you prefer to see it. I also just enjoy radio, though radio plays do require a certain level of concentration (which is perhaps why no one else my age seems to listen to them). If you consider how many new plays Radio 4 alone seems to generate, the fact I listened to 60 between mid-July and mid-December is not as impressive as it originally sounds. It was, however, very difficult to pick favorites, which is why I cheated and went with 15!
15. Murder Every Monday (Pamela Branch/Mark Gatiss) I’m really hard on radio comedy. Even if I’ve enjoyed it at the time, I always wonder if it would appeal as much if I heard it as much a second time. Usually I conclude that it wouldn’t, and good radio comedies go on the back burner in my memory. But that isn’t fair, especially when they’re as clever and funny as this adaptation by Mark Gatiss (the first of many Doctor Who luminaries in this list ...). This is fluff, but it’s very English, very Gatiss (“rather!”)--a sort of radio amalgamation of Gosford Park and “The Unicorn and the Wasp.” Mark Gatiss also plays a character, and I must say it was very disconcerting to hear him kissing all these women! There were some very funny jabs at Americans, excellent sound production, and you could tell the actors were having fun hamming it up.
14. Caligari (Amanda Dalton) This was a very ambitious experiment, and even if perhaps it didn’t all come together, it was very memorable. It’s an attempt to shift German Expressionism from the silent film--The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari0-into radio. I hadn’t seen the film until after I heard the play, so I went out and rented it (this was right around Halloween). Both play and film share an atmosphere of dreamy menace, where nothing is quite what it seems, and both are quite frightening in places (or I should say, disturbing). Caligari himself did not have a speaking role in the play, but Césare, his sideshow somnambulist, was sung by a counter-tenor. This is very interesting in regards to the film, in which Césare did not speak. The play also added a militant soldier-fool (with a northern accent) who was a particularly well-realized character (for passing judgement on World War I).
13. Dover and the Unkindest Cut (Joyce Porter) This was a bit long (I tend to think 45 minutes is the ideal length for a radio play) but very, very funny. It had to do with a detective called to a Welsh village to investigate dismemberment, though it was chiefly told from the detective’s assistant’s perspective. From that perspective, the detective was a fruit loop and so were all the occupants of the village. The Chief Constable was played by Philip Madoc, who you hear a lot on radio, and who sounds just like my former poetry tutor, so that is always disconcerting. I found it lampooned Welshmen and Englishmen in equal measure, and the women in the village--well, they were something else!
12. Frank (Ian McMillan) I really didn’t like this for the first few minutes and was considering turning it off, but I persevered. It was altogether too silly, obsessed with rhubarb--and then the play finally got going and started to make me laugh. The idea of a frustrated Yorkshire rhubarb farmer wanting to get his dole benefits by making his doppelganger do his work is funny enough (and how English!). But the fact that Frankie “the monster” is Scottish and far sexier than Frank his maker is outrageous. I also really liked the ending--very sly. This was the play on Halloween, by the way.
11. Doctor Who: The Zygon Who Fell to Earth (Paul Magrs)I don’t know if it’s cheating to include BBC7 plays, particularly Big Finish, but I’m going to anyway. I was so excited this year to have gotten to hear the Eighth Doctor’s new radio season with Lucie Miller--I heard all of the plays but one. They were all great, but the two on this list were good enough to stand up with the “normal” radio plays. You can always count on Magrs to be whimsical and weird, but I was really touched by this play of his. He writes comedy beautifully. His barely-disguised Zygons are hilarious (though apparently continuity was getting its wires crossed as the Eighth Doctor and Lucie are in the Lake District here in the ‘70s and then the Tenth Doctor and Martha will be there again in 1909 ...). But he also achieves pathos and sympathy for a Zygon who falls in love with a human, and brings a surprising and bittersweet twist. As usual Sheridan Smith as Lucie shines, but McGann takes a bit of a backseat in this one. Oh, and the music’s good.
10. The Art of Conversation (Dylan Thomas) I heard this play’s world premiere at my new workplace, the Dylan Thomas Centre, during the Dylan Thomas Festival in November. It was discovered by Thomas’ latest biographer among some papers in Texas (?!) and was apparently never produced though it was commissioned during a time when Thomas was writing propaganda for the British war effort. It’s a virtuoso piece, but uneasy--I can’t tell if Thomas’ world-weary cynicism in people’s garrulousness is genuine or a mockery. Parts of it are very funny, very witty, and the adaptation and effects are for the most part very good. Philip Madoc plays the narrator, and to acquire Richard Burton’s “To begin at the beginning” apparently cost more than the rest of the play put together.
9. The Late Mr Shakespeare (Robert Nye) While I enjoyed the fact this story was about Shakespeare, what I liked even more about it was its meta-fictional approach. Jim Broadbent is a child actor handpicked by Shakespeare who, at 81, recounts his life in a garret above a whorehouse during the London Fire. The actor Pickleherring makes an engaging narrator, but what’s more, he splits himself into two selves, his younger (played by George Longworth) and his older, and then has these selves play off each other. It culminates in the older Pickleherring playing Shakespeare’s father and the younger playing Queen Elizabeth!
8. Tulips in Winter (Michele Wandor) My two problems with this were that it was too long (a Radio 3 hour-long play, I believe), and the device of the Angel, which was interesting and even hilarious when interacting with Spinoza, but when mouthing oddities came off as a bit pretentious and annoying. Otherwise, though, I really enjoyed this grand story of Spinoza and his excommunication from the Dutch Orthodox Jewish community. It had such an array of 17th century stars—Cromwell, Downing, and an especially excellent Rembrandt, played by Timothy Spall. Gabriel Woolf even lent his distinctive voice. The religious element was always presented directly and forthrightly, which made it seem even more natural as opposed to some sort of historical pastiche. It managed to use simple images and an arresting soundtrack to bring the story to life.
7. Doctor Who: Max Warp (Jonathan Morris) This was my first Eighth Doctor play, and I did not expect to like it, given the setting and general plot. But I loved it. I never thought a play on this subject--parodying space stories as well as Top Gear--could be so funny or so engaging. McGann and Smith were wonderful together. Lucie is a distinct companion. The sound quality is superb, and Morris really knows how to create a full-sounding audio landscape. You didn’t need tons of characters nor any kind of romantic relationship with the Doctor and companion for a great tale, imaginative and fun. James Fleet and Graham Garden were excellent as well.
6. Worktown (Michael Symmonds Roberts) This was an oddity, but I found myself smiling through every second of it. It was a bit like Under Milk Wood for the 21st century, using a photograph of 1930s Bolton as a springboard for an imaginative, surreal story. It earned is rather staid narration style because of the incongruence of its stories. Absurd but never quaint situations including romance in the snake oil trade, a young boy terrified of cock fighting, motor accidents, a man with dogs. And it featured, rather surprisingly, very lively jazz trios from dogs and cows!! (Only on radio.)
5. Torchwood: Lost Souls (Joe Lidster) This was way too much fun. I wasn’t sure how this would pan out--I wasn’t sure if Torchwood would translate to radio well. But it was fab. It’s Lidster, so it’s dark, full of death, and necessarily science-technical. But, because it was radio, exposition and explanation were not out of place when tempered by humor and strong performances. Much of it was uproariously funny--everyone was laughing when Ianto was declared Ambassador for Wales with Jack as his assistant and Gwen as his wife. I was very pleased at the way it dealt with the deaths of Owen and Toshiko. The sound techniques were quite impressive, and parts of it made me shiver. May I say that Freema Agyeman is perhaps a better actress on radio, too?
4. A Tokyo Murder (John Dryden/Miriam Smith) This three-parter (45 minute segments) surprised me utterly. Again, it was not something I expected I would like. The first part described the frustrated murder investigation by the female DI, played by Rachel Ferguson, into a missing British girl who was last seen at a school in Japan. Besides the intrigue at this stage, I was really curious to see if the DI and her Japanese counterpart, played by Takuya Matsumoto, were going to pay attention to the sparks that were flying between them. Alas, we never found out, as the second part went back in time to the girl’s murder, so that the characters we thought we knew in the first part (the girl’s roommate, Japanese boyfriend, American colleague) cleverly revealed themselves. The third part, which let me down slightly, was her parents trying to find her killer. The performances were fantastic, a more successful feat than Lost in Translation on ex-pats in Japan- more cynical, but well-structured, with meaty characters. I looked forward to it for the three days it was on, and the storytelling techniques were disarmingly simple.
3. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Victor Hugo/Alex Bulmer) This is one of my favorite books of all time, and while many have adapted it, I was really knocked out by this version, again in three parts. It’s a Graeae production, which is a disabled-led company, and deaf actor David Bower plays Quasimodo. He is amazing and very moving in the role, managing to pack all the profundity, simplicity, confusion and pathos of the Hugo character in. Esmeralda, played by Romani actress Candis Nergaard, is much stronger than in the book, though still earnestly in love with her precious Phoebus, and also much more tolerant and empathetic than her book counterpart. Kevin Doyle is also superb as Frollo, effortlessly marrying all the facets of his character. It was streamlined, of course--no emerald bag, Gringoire, Court of Miracles, torture scene, etc--but it was sensitively done, surprisingly faithful to the core message and the main Gothic story. Great music and sound production. It made me cry!
2. Fridays When It Rains (Nick Warburton) Overall this is one of the best radio thrillers I have ever heard. I have since figured out that Warburton uses the same motifs a lot, and that somewhat lessens the startling originality, but that’s of little consequence. This was creepy in the extreme with some excellent mood music. Starring only Lyndsey Marshall as the girl and Clive Swift as the man, the suspense and the dialogue were perfectly pitched. Swift was terrifying. I remember sitting in the living room staring out the window gripping my seat because I was on the edge of it! The end didn’t make sense entirely- -maybe I needed to listen to it a second time--but there’s no doubt I loved the fact it took place entirely on a steam train in 1910, 1964, and the present day. This is what radio can do!
1. HMS Surprise (Patrick O’Brian/Roger Danes) This should be no surprise. One of my favorite books of all time adapted as a three-part radio play? Yes! It was not easy to divide the book into three parts and keep the tension going, but it was done masterfully. The sound production quality was high class, very evocative. The voices for Aubrey and Maturin took a bit of getting used to, but Stephen in particular was absolutely perfect. (By the time I read The Mauritius Command, I was hearing David Robb rather than Russell Crowe and Richard Dillane rather than Paul Bettany in my mind.) It broke my heart to have the end of the play be Stephen’s pitiable reaction to Diana’s rejection (and by the way, I wasn’t sure about Adjoa Andoh as Diana, but she was great). Audio is, sukrprisingly, perfectly suited for some of O’Brian’s best one-liners. I was also impressed with what they did with Dil (her death was the end to part two). Obviously they had to sex things up a bit, which they did in the form of Jack and an old flame, and I think a bit of Jack/Sophie. Diana and Stephen only got one interrupted kiss, but I don’t mind telling you, it was hot. O’Brian, I think, would be very proud of this excellent, well-rounded adaptation.
Some other highlights of included The Babington Plot (Michael Butt), Prayer Mask (David Pownall), Boscobel (Ian Curteis), Memorials to the Missing (Stephen Wyatt) , Away Day (D J Britton), Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mr. Hitler (Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran), and The Pattern of Painful Adventures (Stephen Wakelam).
And finally ...
I feel I have to mention Doctor Who: Chimes of Midnight (Rob Shearman) and The Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Leroux/Barnaby Edwards). I started listening to them on BBC7 but won’t be able to finish them because I’m going to the US for Christmas. I was so impressed by the adaptation of POTO that I bought it and will be listening to it in its entirety on the flight (stay tuned). I am very tempted to buy Chimes of Midnight because it is amazing, and I can’t stand not knowing the ending.
Thank God for radio drama!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
top ten books
Top Five Doctor Who (DWM) Comics
Top Ten Batman Stories
Top Ten Graphic Novels
Top Ten Books
Top Fifteen Radio Plays
Top Ten Fan Fic
Top Ten Books 2008
With 56 (non-comics) books read this year, I didn’t do too badly (especially considering that several of them were over 500 pages long!). Although I try to break my reading up with non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and drama, the top ten are overwhelmingly in the fiction category.
10. North and South (Elizabeth Gaskell) I’m cheating a bit here, as I haven’t finished this yet, but at 570 pages, you can forgive me for being a bit precipitous! I’ll do a full review at some point, but I’ve really been pleasantly surprised with this, after being frustrated into reading it, that no one took my Facebook hint to buy me the mini-series, which of course stars Richard Armitage. (Look what the man has done for me! Got me to read my Shakespeare, research the Crusades, watch Spooks, read Gaskell ...!) In theme and structure, North and South is similar to Pride and Prejudice, though I might at this point argue I like John Thornton more than Mr Darcy. I know, shock, shock (though I have said before I prefer Colonel Wentworth in Austen’s array of romantic heroes). I’m also learning a great deal about the Industrial Revolution in the UK (as opposed to the American Civil War).
9. Translations (Brian Friel) My friend Maria wrote her dissertation on Brian Friel and even went to Ireland to meet him and research in Dublin’s libraries. He was always highly recommended to me, but it was only by chance I picked up this play by him in an attempt to help my own writing of stage plays. I was amazed at the simplicity and naturalness of Friel’s writing historical drama. I had to look at the stage directions to realize that it was set in the 19th century. The story is about an Irish hedge-school, visited by an English regiment whose job it is to convert all the place names in Ireland into English. This is a sly observation on language, communication, and culture, with a mournful and yet tender romance somehow not “lost in translation.”
8. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) How I never came upon this book before now I don’t know. I was too young to appreciate the BBC mini-series when it came to PBS; I was amused by the Hollywood film. I earlier compared reading the book to the experience of clone!Leela and clone!Doctor going inside the real Doctor’s head in “The Invisible Enemy”: funny, absolutely insane, satirical, philosophical, and highly imaginative. I could quote the bit about towels ... but I won’t.
7. The Master and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov) The Master and Margarita is a book that defies categorization (a bit like Phantom of the Opera, I find). I was given the book by my friend Renée, with whom I co-taught Gothic Horror (and who taught me to love many varied and interesting texts in the Novel as Social Commentary), who is something of an expert in Russian literature. Bulgakov was a sincerely valorous writer, in that he wrote The Master and Margarita with the full knowledge it would never be published within his lifetime—he was living in Stalinist Russia, and its exploration of Christian religious themes would have censored it immediately. The Devil is a character. Witches ride on broomsticks above Moscow. Margarita serves as Lucifer’s hostess in a hellish masquerade. The Master, while not the Master of Doctor Who, is nevertheless an enigmatic figure, a writer of an uncannily realistic account of Jesus and Pontius Pilate in A.D. 43. So it becomes a story within a story within a story ... Highly imaginative, very funny, and an interesting window into 1920s Soviet society-highly recommended.
6. Beethoven’s Hair (Russell Martin) I’ve read much on Beethoven, Hummel, Mozart, and Haydn due to something I’m working on. I was amazed at how much I enjoyed this nonfiction book and how it kept me on the edge of my seat. A really well-constructed and organized sampler of Beethoven’s life, with an easy-to-read, conversational style. It’s also the intriguing story of his hair after his death! I particularly liked reading about Hummel’s student Hiller (who ended up with the hair in question for awhile), though of course the Danish heroism and subsequent mystery was pretty gripping. If you remember in the news a few years ago hearing about the high levels of arsenic in Beethoven’s hair, which may have caused his death-this is that story, and a lot more.
5. Notes from a Small Island (Bill Bryson) I’m a bit cross with Bill Bryson since he’s the Chancellor of Durham University and wrote to my friend Katie, a graduate of that educational establishment, to ask her for money. But normally I’m one of his staunchest fans because I find him terribly hilarious, immensely shrewd, and like me, he’s an American with a huge soft spot for Britain and Britons. This is one of the books that cemented his reputation. I have learned that Brits in general find it as funny as I did, which is no small feat, to amuse both sides of the Atlantic equally. His other works all retain the sense of humor with surprisingly strong and acerbic opinions all bundled up with a sense of wonder and delight-yet this one takes the cake. Yah.
4. Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell) My aunt, who introduced me to costume drama, told me for years to read Gone with the Wind, as with my affinity for description of costume she knew I would love it. She’d also bred a hopeless romantic, and though I went in very sceptical of having any affection whatsoever for Rhett Butler, I came out conscious of its deserving its status as one of the greatest love stories of all time. The color, the beauty, the flippancy of the Old South, the picking, gnawing tedium of the Reconstruction, inner conflict, outward battles. Scarlett experienced it all, and for all her lack of education, her selfishness, she is the type of woman who is more or less inside all of us. If you want a character who really goes through hell, this is the place to find her. But wait! you might say. Isn’t this a racist book? Well, I doubt you will ever see the n-word repeated as many times in a book. I think it’s acceptable when a book includes characters who are merely reflections of attitudes that were once genuinely espoused. You may disagree. In any case, no one can deny the scale and the energy in this moving history and love story.
3. Stumbling on Happiness (Daniel Gilbert) Every page packed enormous and consequential teachings that everyone should know. Sometimes the irreverent tone was a bit much-Gilbert does find himself a bit amusing-but overall extremely thorough and 100% engrossing. It’s a bit depressing to realize that there is no perfect way to predict happiness, because basically our brains are hard-wired against it! I read a book late last year called That’s Not What I Meant! which annoyed me because it didn’t give any practical hints for how to deal with miscommunication. It could be argued that Stumbling on Happiness won’t bring you any closer to happiness (though I think he does see the value in writing down how we feel, so we can look back at it and say, ooh, THAT’s how I felt). Gilbert tells us by way of ingenious and thorough experimental and empirical data, is that humans are very poor at predicting and remembering what makes them happy. Yet I suppose there is something comforting in the fact that I’m not alone in not understanding my own happiness or lack thereof!
2. The Road to Samarcand (Patrick O’Brian) While I didn’t enjoy my Master and Commander book this year as much I as I expected to, The Road to Samarcand more than made up for it. This was cracking good fun. Maybe it didn’t contain the emotional depth of Aubrey/Maturin, but it was a tremendously good yarn. I cried, I laughed, I couldn’t put it down. I felt I’d gone through the Himalayas, sailed the south seas, and through the Gobi Desert with the expedition. The characters are charming, and this is a story of O’Brian’s that isn’t set in the Napoleonic era. I just loved it. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
1. Broome Stages (Clement Dane) No one has heard of this book, not even antique book dealers in Hay-on-Wye. I was very, very fortunate to find a copy in the University of New Mexico library- I was tempted to steal it- after my former radio tutor D J Britton told me he had found the book in a church bazaar and that it reminded him of my writing. It’s long, but to me it trumps even The Forsyte Saga and The Magnificent Ambersons, also family sagas, in terms of scale. It isn’t quite as heavy-handed as Galsworthy, and, as a dramatist, Dane has an impressive sense of great scenes. His characters are so magnificent and so real, it almost broke my heart to follow their very human rise and fall. What also sets it apart from the other two books I’ve mentioned is its Shakespeare/acting angle- it follows a family of actors from the early 18th century to the early 20th. The book is exceptional, and it deserves to live outside the long-neglected pages- if it were up to me, it would! Now I just have to find a production company that will take me on ... If you can find the book, you will be impressed.
Phew!
Top Ten Batman Stories
Top Ten Graphic Novels
Top Ten Books
Top Fifteen Radio Plays
Top Ten Fan Fic
Top Ten Books 2008
With 56 (non-comics) books read this year, I didn’t do too badly (especially considering that several of them were over 500 pages long!). Although I try to break my reading up with non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and drama, the top ten are overwhelmingly in the fiction category.
10. North and South (Elizabeth Gaskell) I’m cheating a bit here, as I haven’t finished this yet, but at 570 pages, you can forgive me for being a bit precipitous! I’ll do a full review at some point, but I’ve really been pleasantly surprised with this, after being frustrated into reading it, that no one took my Facebook hint to buy me the mini-series, which of course stars Richard Armitage. (Look what the man has done for me! Got me to read my Shakespeare, research the Crusades, watch Spooks, read Gaskell ...!) In theme and structure, North and South is similar to Pride and Prejudice, though I might at this point argue I like John Thornton more than Mr Darcy. I know, shock, shock (though I have said before I prefer Colonel Wentworth in Austen’s array of romantic heroes). I’m also learning a great deal about the Industrial Revolution in the UK (as opposed to the American Civil War).
9. Translations (Brian Friel) My friend Maria wrote her dissertation on Brian Friel and even went to Ireland to meet him and research in Dublin’s libraries. He was always highly recommended to me, but it was only by chance I picked up this play by him in an attempt to help my own writing of stage plays. I was amazed at the simplicity and naturalness of Friel’s writing historical drama. I had to look at the stage directions to realize that it was set in the 19th century. The story is about an Irish hedge-school, visited by an English regiment whose job it is to convert all the place names in Ireland into English. This is a sly observation on language, communication, and culture, with a mournful and yet tender romance somehow not “lost in translation.”
8. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) How I never came upon this book before now I don’t know. I was too young to appreciate the BBC mini-series when it came to PBS; I was amused by the Hollywood film. I earlier compared reading the book to the experience of clone!Leela and clone!Doctor going inside the real Doctor’s head in “The Invisible Enemy”: funny, absolutely insane, satirical, philosophical, and highly imaginative. I could quote the bit about towels ... but I won’t.
7. The Master and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov) The Master and Margarita is a book that defies categorization (a bit like Phantom of the Opera, I find). I was given the book by my friend Renée, with whom I co-taught Gothic Horror (and who taught me to love many varied and interesting texts in the Novel as Social Commentary), who is something of an expert in Russian literature. Bulgakov was a sincerely valorous writer, in that he wrote The Master and Margarita with the full knowledge it would never be published within his lifetime—he was living in Stalinist Russia, and its exploration of Christian religious themes would have censored it immediately. The Devil is a character. Witches ride on broomsticks above Moscow. Margarita serves as Lucifer’s hostess in a hellish masquerade. The Master, while not the Master of Doctor Who, is nevertheless an enigmatic figure, a writer of an uncannily realistic account of Jesus and Pontius Pilate in A.D. 43. So it becomes a story within a story within a story ... Highly imaginative, very funny, and an interesting window into 1920s Soviet society-highly recommended.
6. Beethoven’s Hair (Russell Martin) I’ve read much on Beethoven, Hummel, Mozart, and Haydn due to something I’m working on. I was amazed at how much I enjoyed this nonfiction book and how it kept me on the edge of my seat. A really well-constructed and organized sampler of Beethoven’s life, with an easy-to-read, conversational style. It’s also the intriguing story of his hair after his death! I particularly liked reading about Hummel’s student Hiller (who ended up with the hair in question for awhile), though of course the Danish heroism and subsequent mystery was pretty gripping. If you remember in the news a few years ago hearing about the high levels of arsenic in Beethoven’s hair, which may have caused his death-this is that story, and a lot more.
5. Notes from a Small Island (Bill Bryson) I’m a bit cross with Bill Bryson since he’s the Chancellor of Durham University and wrote to my friend Katie, a graduate of that educational establishment, to ask her for money. But normally I’m one of his staunchest fans because I find him terribly hilarious, immensely shrewd, and like me, he’s an American with a huge soft spot for Britain and Britons. This is one of the books that cemented his reputation. I have learned that Brits in general find it as funny as I did, which is no small feat, to amuse both sides of the Atlantic equally. His other works all retain the sense of humor with surprisingly strong and acerbic opinions all bundled up with a sense of wonder and delight-yet this one takes the cake. Yah.
4. Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell) My aunt, who introduced me to costume drama, told me for years to read Gone with the Wind, as with my affinity for description of costume she knew I would love it. She’d also bred a hopeless romantic, and though I went in very sceptical of having any affection whatsoever for Rhett Butler, I came out conscious of its deserving its status as one of the greatest love stories of all time. The color, the beauty, the flippancy of the Old South, the picking, gnawing tedium of the Reconstruction, inner conflict, outward battles. Scarlett experienced it all, and for all her lack of education, her selfishness, she is the type of woman who is more or less inside all of us. If you want a character who really goes through hell, this is the place to find her. But wait! you might say. Isn’t this a racist book? Well, I doubt you will ever see the n-word repeated as many times in a book. I think it’s acceptable when a book includes characters who are merely reflections of attitudes that were once genuinely espoused. You may disagree. In any case, no one can deny the scale and the energy in this moving history and love story.
3. Stumbling on Happiness (Daniel Gilbert) Every page packed enormous and consequential teachings that everyone should know. Sometimes the irreverent tone was a bit much-Gilbert does find himself a bit amusing-but overall extremely thorough and 100% engrossing. It’s a bit depressing to realize that there is no perfect way to predict happiness, because basically our brains are hard-wired against it! I read a book late last year called That’s Not What I Meant! which annoyed me because it didn’t give any practical hints for how to deal with miscommunication. It could be argued that Stumbling on Happiness won’t bring you any closer to happiness (though I think he does see the value in writing down how we feel, so we can look back at it and say, ooh, THAT’s how I felt). Gilbert tells us by way of ingenious and thorough experimental and empirical data, is that humans are very poor at predicting and remembering what makes them happy. Yet I suppose there is something comforting in the fact that I’m not alone in not understanding my own happiness or lack thereof!
2. The Road to Samarcand (Patrick O’Brian) While I didn’t enjoy my Master and Commander book this year as much I as I expected to, The Road to Samarcand more than made up for it. This was cracking good fun. Maybe it didn’t contain the emotional depth of Aubrey/Maturin, but it was a tremendously good yarn. I cried, I laughed, I couldn’t put it down. I felt I’d gone through the Himalayas, sailed the south seas, and through the Gobi Desert with the expedition. The characters are charming, and this is a story of O’Brian’s that isn’t set in the Napoleonic era. I just loved it. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
1. Broome Stages (Clement Dane) No one has heard of this book, not even antique book dealers in Hay-on-Wye. I was very, very fortunate to find a copy in the University of New Mexico library- I was tempted to steal it- after my former radio tutor D J Britton told me he had found the book in a church bazaar and that it reminded him of my writing. It’s long, but to me it trumps even The Forsyte Saga and The Magnificent Ambersons, also family sagas, in terms of scale. It isn’t quite as heavy-handed as Galsworthy, and, as a dramatist, Dane has an impressive sense of great scenes. His characters are so magnificent and so real, it almost broke my heart to follow their very human rise and fall. What also sets it apart from the other two books I’ve mentioned is its Shakespeare/acting angle- it follows a family of actors from the early 18th century to the early 20th. The book is exceptional, and it deserves to live outside the long-neglected pages- if it were up to me, it would! Now I just have to find a production company that will take me on ... If you can find the book, you will be impressed.
Phew!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
top ten- top ten fan fic
Top Five Doctor Who (DWM) Comics
Top Ten Batman Stories
Top Ten Graphic Novels
Top Ten Books
Top Fifteen Radio Plays
Top Ten Fan Fic
Top Ten Fan Fic
And now we come to the most self-indulgent of all categories. I did, some time ago, a fairly comprehensive listing of my favorite fan fics in different categories, though I daresay I was preaching to the wrong crowd. But as I was musing the other day, I’ve written 58 fan fics (well, I have 58 posted on fanfiction.net ... there are a few more that never made it there). The trade-off of ff.net is that you have a worldwide audience (potentially) and usually if you’re writing within a certain fandom, you’re guaranteed good reception from at least some of the readers who like more of the same. But you’ll never get your work published, and there are many readers who don’t leave reviews- you can’t make money off fan fiction (except in rare cases) so I guess for me it’s always represented practice, personal amusement, and meeting likeminded people. But for fun, we’re going to look at what other people might consider the top ten of the fan fics I’ve got posted on ff.net. How do I determine this? Well, we’ll go with the fics with the most reviews, the best reviews, the longest fics, and the one-of-a-kinds. Allons-y!
10. Birthdays (2006) is the first Doctor Who fan fic I wrote. I personally think it’s not very good, but of all of my Doctor Who stories on ff.net, it’s got the most reviews (9). It’s a little vignette between the Ninth Doctor and Rose and sets us off in the “Holidays” universe.
9. Origins (2006-) is one of the few things on ff.net that I haven’t completed. I never got the additional research done to complete the section in Russia, and since there never seemed to be a huge demand to finish it (7 reviews) I haven’t made the effort. A reworking of Erik the Phantom’s past (as opposed to the version written by Susan Kay in the published Phantom), it has gotten some good reviews. Deirdre of the Sorrows wrote:
8. Mirrors (2006) is a one-off written for (the movie of) V for Vendetta. I just dashed it off, but to my surprise, readers really liked it. EnigmaSphinx said:
7. Doctor Who the Musical Season 2 (2007) is the only other representative of Doctor Who fan fic here. Even though it’s incomplete, due to the fact I just couldn’t be arsed to write parodies for “Love & Monsters” and “Fear Her,” people still seemed to find it quite humorous, giving it 11 reviews.
6. The Pajama Game (2005) has 14 reviews, twice as many as its antecedent “Cold Shower.” Both have to do with giving a personality to Dr. Jonathan Crane, my first villainous fascination from Batman Begins. Both of them use flashbacks to find a window into the psychologist’s psyche (a psyche full of frustration, shame, and rejection). Lady Awesomepants was tongue-tied:
5 & 4. Butcher, Baker, Tailor & Queen of Hearts(2008) BBT trails behind its sequel by a few reviews (48 to 51) so it’s easier just to discuss them both at the same time. Out of Nolan!verse Joker fever came the first story, a sort of parable set in Québec with a tailor’s daughter named Cécile Blandine. “Queen of Hearts” followed Cécile to Gotham with murder and mayhem in her wake. L Bea said:
3. Making It Stranger (2008) is a baby compared to the rest, yet it was an instant hit both on ff.net and A Teaspoon and An Open Mind (earning 18 reviews at the former and 23 at the latter). It crawled out of my mind, pairing characters from Doctor Who and Torchwood with Nolan!verse Batman. JJPOR explains the appeal:
2. Bring Me That Horizon (2003-2005)is both the longest piece (68,442 words!) and has the second-largest amount of reviews, 71. This is my epic love letter to Sparrabeth, that is, Jack Sparrow/Elizabeth Swann fandom, rendered non-canonical when Dead Man’s Chest came out. Yet DMC and At World’s End danked some of my ideas, which I found very strange. People begged me for a sequel for a very long time! Kathryn Sparrow said:
1. Scars (2000-2005) has an astonishing (for me) 83 reviews. And many of them are very good reviews. I must have established a rapport with the readers; it’s one of the few times . “Scars” is actually very old, I started it when I was 17. It is a sort of pre-quel to Phantom of the Opera, in that it takes place in 1870-1 when the opera house was being used as an arsenal and then a prison. It concerns a nurse named Manon Lapaine and her meeting the hideous, musical Erik. HDKingsbury wrote:
Top Ten Batman Stories
Top Ten Graphic Novels
Top Ten Books
Top Fifteen Radio Plays
Top Ten Fan Fic
Top Ten Fan Fic
And now we come to the most self-indulgent of all categories. I did, some time ago, a fairly comprehensive listing of my favorite fan fics in different categories, though I daresay I was preaching to the wrong crowd. But as I was musing the other day, I’ve written 58 fan fics (well, I have 58 posted on fanfiction.net ... there are a few more that never made it there). The trade-off of ff.net is that you have a worldwide audience (potentially) and usually if you’re writing within a certain fandom, you’re guaranteed good reception from at least some of the readers who like more of the same. But you’ll never get your work published, and there are many readers who don’t leave reviews- you can’t make money off fan fiction (except in rare cases) so I guess for me it’s always represented practice, personal amusement, and meeting likeminded people. But for fun, we’re going to look at what other people might consider the top ten of the fan fics I’ve got posted on ff.net. How do I determine this? Well, we’ll go with the fics with the most reviews, the best reviews, the longest fics, and the one-of-a-kinds. Allons-y!
10. Birthdays (2006) is the first Doctor Who fan fic I wrote. I personally think it’s not very good, but of all of my Doctor Who stories on ff.net, it’s got the most reviews (9). It’s a little vignette between the Ninth Doctor and Rose and sets us off in the “Holidays” universe.
9. Origins (2006-) is one of the few things on ff.net that I haven’t completed. I never got the additional research done to complete the section in Russia, and since there never seemed to be a huge demand to finish it (7 reviews) I haven’t made the effort. A reworking of Erik the Phantom’s past (as opposed to the version written by Susan Kay in the published Phantom), it has gotten some good reviews. Deirdre of the Sorrows wrote:
This fic is a veritable diamond in the rough, what with the dreck that's been posted on this site recently. Wonderfully written, thoughtfully crafted and just generally well done.
8. Mirrors (2006) is a one-off written for (the movie of) V for Vendetta. I just dashed it off, but to my surprise, readers really liked it. EnigmaSphinx said:
What a rich little jewel I have found!! This is a pretty tale, just the right touch of longing and loss. Poor Evey and poor V. One wonders if they might have ever synched up and gotten somewhere, were the fifth of Novembr not guaranteed once a year. You did a great job with this story. I was impressed with how you divided their thoughts and yet blended them too. Astonishing. Truly.
7. Doctor Who the Musical Season 2 (2007) is the only other representative of Doctor Who fan fic here. Even though it’s incomplete, due to the fact I just couldn’t be arsed to write parodies for “Love & Monsters” and “Fear Her,” people still seemed to find it quite humorous, giving it 11 reviews.
6. The Pajama Game (2005) has 14 reviews, twice as many as its antecedent “Cold Shower.” Both have to do with giving a personality to Dr. Jonathan Crane, my first villainous fascination from Batman Begins. Both of them use flashbacks to find a window into the psychologist’s psyche (a psyche full of frustration, shame, and rejection). Lady Awesomepants was tongue-tied:
Holy **. Adding to favorites. I think this is the best thing I've ever read in my entire life. Just...holy **.Blodeuedd, a talented Crane-fic writer herself, said this:
Your Cranefics just keep getting better and better and, just when we think they couldn't, still better. This one is just so...unbelievably good. (big, happy sigh) I'm so content right now, knowing there are amazing writers like you out there. Thanks for sharing this one with us. :) (raises glass)
5 & 4. Butcher, Baker, Tailor & Queen of Hearts(2008) BBT trails behind its sequel by a few reviews (48 to 51) so it’s easier just to discuss them both at the same time. Out of Nolan!verse Joker fever came the first story, a sort of parable set in Québec with a tailor’s daughter named Cécile Blandine. “Queen of Hearts” followed Cécile to Gotham with murder and mayhem in her wake. L Bea said:
An OC who's original? Now there's a change. I like so many things about this story. The ending in particular -- the Joker's failure to initiate something normal ("Drink some coffee!"), it's sad but not sentimental. A lot of fics I've read focus on his violence while this one only hints at it, which comes off a lot more subtle. The non-Gotham setting is unusual too, but you pull it off nicely.Wonderful author KatxValentine said: Wow.
Oh, wow. Sincerely, truly, fantastically, ultimately wow. This was one of the singular most incredible fanfics I've read in a long time. I'm violently impressed with it on an overall-- the word-choice, the descriptions. You've made such an incredible idea out of the tiny idiosyncrasy that his suit was custom. I applaud you for this, this is amazing.Blodeudd’s review was perhaps the most telling:
I'll admit it - I wolfed this story down. It reads like a legitimate comic book, spun off from the Nolan-verse. I can almost imagine the pictures that accompany it; each sentence is like a box of artwork, completed with all the trimmings - dialogue bubbles, vivid color, dramatic angles.And Girl With a Planet wants a part three:
Wonderful, fascinating, haunting. I'd love a third installment for nothing more than to follow the travails of Cecile because she is fascinating.We’ll see how these stand up to the test of time.
3. Making It Stranger (2008) is a baby compared to the rest, yet it was an instant hit both on ff.net and A Teaspoon and An Open Mind (earning 18 reviews at the former and 23 at the latter). It crawled out of my mind, pairing characters from Doctor Who and Torchwood with Nolan!verse Batman. JJPOR explains the appeal:
I really enjoyed this - you brought both the Torchwood/Doctor Who characters and Batman and his rogues' gallery vividly to life. The standouts for me were the Joker and Ten, but I really liked your portrayal of Crane/the Scarecrow, one of my favourite characters from the Nolan movies, and I always have a soft spot for Mickey!Peachy, like several readers, asked for more:
This was EPIC. Seriously, amazing job with everything. Your Joker was perfect, especially in the scene where he tames the Weevils. Everyone interacted so well. Wow, I have no words. I need more! Please?My favorite review was one asking me to write a Martha/Joker fic!
2. Bring Me That Horizon (2003-2005)is both the longest piece (68,442 words!) and has the second-largest amount of reviews, 71. This is my epic love letter to Sparrabeth, that is, Jack Sparrow/Elizabeth Swann fandom, rendered non-canonical when Dead Man’s Chest came out. Yet DMC and At World’s End danked some of my ideas, which I found very strange. People begged me for a sequel for a very long time! Kathryn Sparrow said:
Oh my goodness. That was the best fanfiction that I have ever read.Knit-wear said:
i just wanted to say that sometimes i look at the number of reviews a story has as an indication of its quality-- i would expect this one to have hundreds just because of how amazing it is.Sheriboalmighty quite amused me by saying:
i have stayed up all night reading this. i have litereally been on the edge of my seat waiting for jack and elizabeth to realize their feelings!! AGHH! SEQUEL!! please... PLEASE!! *begs begs begs on hands and knees* please? pretty please?? and i can't believe she cut his hair.(Readers were generally mortified when Elizabeth cut Jack’s hair in chapter 4!)
1. Scars (2000-2005) has an astonishing (for me) 83 reviews. And many of them are very good reviews. I must have established a rapport with the readers; it’s one of the few times . “Scars” is actually very old, I started it when I was 17. It is a sort of pre-quel to Phantom of the Opera, in that it takes place in 1870-1 when the opera house was being used as an arsenal and then a prison. It concerns a nurse named Manon Lapaine and her meeting the hideous, musical Erik. HDKingsbury wrote:
Thanks for an enjoyable, entertaining, and bittersweet story.Mad Lizzy wrote:
You are talented and original, and I've enjoyed Scars immensely.Mastersofnight had this to say:
Wonderful premise. So glad you posted this. Your language is superb, I can feel the fear and cold that surround Paris. I can also appreciate your historical research." And stineblicher offers the ultimate compliment: "I am really surprised this story hasn't got more reviews. It is one of the best that are on the net until now.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
the top ten- Top Five Doctor Who (DWM) Comics
The Top Ten
I love top ten lists. I love writing reviews, period. I don’t know why. My talent (if that’s what you call it) seems to be bringing disparate things together, comparing and contrasting (“seeing patterns that aren’t there,” in the words of the Eighth Doctor). So, it’s nearing the end of the year, and what do I have to show for it?
Some statistics for you: in the last six months I have listened to
I love top ten lists. I love writing reviews, period. I don’t know why. My talent (if that’s what you call it) seems to be bringing disparate things together, comparing and contrasting (“seeing patterns that aren’t there,” in the words of the Eighth Doctor). So, it’s nearing the end of the year, and what do I have to show for it?
Some statistics for you: in the last six months I have listened to
- 55 radio plays; read
- 38 graphic novels of which
- 26 were Batman/Catwoman; in the last year I’ve read
- 54 books of which
- 8 were Doctor Who books; and
- 12 were volumes of poetry.
So, for you I have:
Top Five Doctor Who (DWM) Comics
Top Ten Batman Stories
Top Ten Graphic Novels
Top Ten Books
Top Fifteen Radio Plays
Top Ten Fan Fic
Top Five Doctor Who (DWM) Comics
I’ll preface this by saying this is far from exhaustive. I’ve missed a volume of the Eighth Doctor, all of the Ninth Doctor, Ten and Rose, with only some Martha/Ten and Donna/Ten adventures to show for the year I was actually keeping up with Doctor Who Magazine. But bless Swansea Central Library, they do keep up on their Doctor Who comics collections, and it’s from this small pool that I base these rankings. By the way, I define a comic story as a self-contained story rather than the book or collection it’s been published in. For example, Doctor Who would be the fandom, Key to Time would be the collection, but the individual serials (even though they are made of episodes of their own) would be considered stories. Does this make sense??
5. The Shape Shifter (6) (Steve Parkhouse/John Ridgway) I’m a big fan of John Ridgway’s art, and Steve Parkhouse is no slouch when it comes to writing adventures for several Doctors. This is Frobisher’s introduction story from the Sixth Doctor’s collection Voyager. The whole thing channels Dick Tracy-style potboilers with a dose of humor and ingenuity. There’s also a funny section where the Doctor is attacked by a sandwich and is naked in the bath (!). In close-ups, John Ridgway demonstrates his absolute prowess, and to think he was pursuing a full-time job as an engineer while he drew the strip in his spare time!
4. Universal Monsters (10) (Ian Edgington/Adrian Salmon) I’m not sure when I first noticed Adrian Salmon’s arresting art—possibly a cover to Big Finish’s Benny Summerfield range or else his illustrations for the Time Team in Doctor Who Magazine. He was the perfect choice to illustrate this dark, Gothic, and unsettling story for Ten and Martha. Unlike your typical comics artist, there don’t seem to be any stages to drawing, inking, lettering, and coloring- he just paints! The art was gorgeous, Martha kicked butt, and the suspense was matched only by the reversals when the Doctor realized he’d gotten everything horribly, horribly wrong. This is a story about compassion, duty, and love, set in a rather “State of Decay” universe.
3. Where Nobody Knows Your Name (8) (Scott Gray/Roger Langridge) Okay, so sue me: I like Frobisher! This is a sweet story from The Flood with wonderfully distinctive art by the accomplished Roger Langridge (who draws the Eighth Doctor so winningly). I could hear Paul McGann’s voice as soon as his Doctor started processing dialogue bubbles (and that’s a good thing, of course!). The story is sweet, warm, and life-affirming, despite the Doctor having just lost Izzy (“It’s a terrible shame when you lose someone special, isn’t it? When they die . . . When they leave . . . When they change”). It ends with the Doctor regaining his confidence with the unwitting help of . . . Frobisher! Neither of them recognize each other, but it’s a lovely idea.
2. The Gift (6) (Jamie Delano/John Ridgway) This unusual story is from The World Shapers. There’s something of Simon Guerrier’s “Categorical Imperative” in the atmosphere of a birthday party for the 21-year-old Lorduke of Zazz. The decor is vaguely Jazz Age, and Peri at last gets a good costume. The Lorduke himself is a fun character, perfectly capturing a 21-year-old’s combination of enthusiasm and ennui. The Doctor proves he can dance looooong before “Moonlight Serenade.” There’s a hilarious meta-fictional scene as a “Monektoni Shug faces oblivion.” The best part of this story, though, is that music comes out as the ultimate weapon in defeating mindless robots.
1. Happy Deathday (8) (Scott Gray/Roger Langridge) Oh, like you’re surprised?
Others worth checking out:
- The Power of Thoueris! (8) (Scott Gray/Adrian Salmon)
- The World Shapers (6) (Mike Collins/John Ridgway)
- The Dragon’s Claw (4) (Steve Moore/Dave Gibbons)
- And that recent 10/Martha story, I think it was Jonathan Morris/Roger Langridge where the Doctor’s enemies destroyed themselves in an attempt to eliminate him, and he only came upon the scene, wondering sadly what could have caused such carnage.
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