Catch it here on BBC iplayer. The episode is called "People of the Year, part 1". Hear Branagh giggle and guffaw. He also proclaims that he is a lover of "crime fiction and procedural dramas" and that "to have a chance to work in that genre was very pleasing". Branagh loves to read and watch lots of them [crime fiction and procedural dramas]. And playing Wallander led to Branagh forgetting to have a shave...
Where Branagh fronts the programme, others follow.
These are the novels and authors I consider of note from my 2008 reading. I complete the list with a tip for a potentially BIG thriller in 2009 here in the UK (and hopefully internationally), along with a further note on author blogging (because the efforts of some deserve to be acknowledged). As per usual, I concentrate on the UK and Ireland.
For the greatest achievement:
Andrew Wilson's The Lying Tongue. How can you engage a reader and keep them turning the pages when you have two relatively unsympathetic characters as the main protagonists? With a game of cat and mouse using smoke and mirrors, with excellent writing skills and a main setting in Venice to boot. As spooky and as creepy as his inspiration: Daphne Du Maurier herself and her short story Don't Look Now that became an iconic movie. Beautiful writing and an author to watch. Thanks to Canongate for thinking I might like this one. I did. A lot.
For a stunning debut:
Earlier today Ruth Jones completed the twelve week run of her radio show Sunday Brunch for BBC Wales. It was done live from Barry's square and James Corden was there providing the ideal opportunity to tell the audience that Jones and Corden have agreed to do a third series. They still have to talk to the BBC, check on the cast's availability etc., but after a long deliberation for the writers, they have decided to go ahead with it. The Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special airs on Christmas Eve. (Photograph from the BBC's site.)
Back on the book blogs around Christmas. Many to catch up on. Sorry, but it's been a bit squiffy here for the last few weeks; but that's due to life and the season!
And to those who stagger here as well: just in case I might miss this opportunity in the near future because of other commitments, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! May 2009 be better for all of us than the media predicts. May we all have good health and find some sort of prosperity.
I am horrified, I have to admit. Amazon employees may be working flat-out to deliver your parcels (and mine), but The Sunday Times delivered an exposé of working conditions in the UK at Amazon, yesterday. I am now an Amazon-customer-in-relent and putting all my orders on hold. Let the law courts decide when it comes to employment law - should anyone affected decide that's an appropriate direction to take, but, from what I read, this is exploitation to an extreme form and just inside the law. Allan Lyall, Vice President of EU Operations at Amazon replied to the claims of the undercover Sunday Times reporter with comments that did not address the claims directly.
I've not been impressed with Amazon's regular & ordinary service since they introduced Amazon Prime, and it's got worse over time. Items dispatched now take much longer to arrive and the email to say so now gives no idea of the estimated time of delivery. (Indeed, the normal "free delivery" service seems to mean "fourth class", truth be told, and up to a whole week in transit.)
The fact that staff are apparently treated in this way, with no reasonable refute to The Sunday Times article means my last Amazon buying click was the very last for now.
A friend and I have discussed alternatives over time and well before this article. Originally, I was a great supporter of The Book Depository, but they have a tendency to complete a transaction as if they have the stock and then come back to say they haven't, refunding your money and shovelling onto your disappointment quotient. TBD were far better packagers for me, with the books arriving intact, but "no shows" proved an impossible irritant. My friend ran to four of these "ended contracts" before cutting to the final chase of "never again": better tenacity than me or poorer memory? Who knows? But he's driven by price, as I am. Perhaps as we all are.
My friend now favours Waterstone's for book purchases. I stuck with Amazon, until this report. (And please, do read it: the true spirit of Christmas is lost even before you get to the second paragraph.) Now I think I should give Waterstone's more consideration on the book purchases.
But lastly, to the workers at Amazon, I say a big "thank you". If working conditions are as reported in The Sunday Times, then it ain't what Father Christmas intended and it ain't what decent folk hoped to see in the UK - this is the "spirit of Christmas lost". When you eventually arrive home exhausted and put your feet up for relief, too tired to see your children asleep, you earn our utmost respect and we wish you a merry Christmas and a far better, and more worthy and respected (that you well deserve) 2009!
May we not ever forget the true spirit of Christmas! And may God bless you Amazon workers!
Earlier this week it was announced that David Tennant had had to pull out of Hamlet due to a back problem that had reached the point of needing surgery (which was scheduled for yesterday). It has been reported that he is unlikely to return to the role before Christmas. Tennant's run as Hamlet at the Novello Theatre in London is due to end on Jan 10, 2009. Not the best way to spend Christmas: getting over an op on a prolapsed disc. He has my sympathy and I wish him a speedy recovery. (The Scottish thesp has captured many hearts in Wales you know, mine included.)
Meanwhile, we have the Dr Who Christmas Special to look forward to and understudy Edward Bennett who took on the main role received a standing ovation from the Hamlet audience, although the MSM professional reviews are mixed but warm overall. Bennett maintains a Welsh connection: brought up in the Cotswolds, he is a graduate of Cardiff University in history and politics. His excitement and humility are in evidence in this article.
At today's Daily Telegraph:
'Oxford University Press has removed words like "aisle", "bishop", "chapel", "empire" and "monarch" from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like "blog", "broadband" and "celebrity". Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.
The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society.
But academics and head teachers said that the changes to the 10,000 word Junior Dictionary could mean that children lose touch with Britain's heritage.'
First, let's look at some of the words added in:
Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue.
Celebrity, tolerant, vandalism, negotiate, interdependent, creep, citizenship, childhood, conflict, common sense, debate, EU, drought, brainy, boisterous, cautionary tale, bilingual, bungee jumping, committee, compulsory, cope, democratic, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate, endangered, Euro.
Apparatus, food chain, incisor, square number, trapezium, alliteration, colloquial, idiom, curriculum, classify, chronological, block graph.
Now let's take a peek at the ones taken out:
Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe.
Dwarf, elf, goblin.
Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar.
Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade.
Adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.
Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow.
Now let's use a few words the OUP felt fit to add to the Junior Dictionary to address them on the day of their reckoning:
Dear Oxford University Press, As we live in an evermore digital world, you appear to want to remain in analogue mode with your changes to the Junior Dictionary, more narrowband than broadband. They have created debate and conflict; caused high emotion in response; and are considered by some to be an act of vandalism on an English language resource for those in childhood. Sadly, your incisors have sliced out a whole raft of beautiful plants and animals making the words as biodegradable as the living things. What is democratic and tolerant about the removal of so many words relating to Christianity, in an era of multiculturalism? How can we expect to export a citizenship of bilingual talent in the future when words in each language are interdependent and the children of today will be exposed to a drought of words in English? Your current policy appears to be allergic to growth in the English language and does not promote a sense of attachment to our home shores and heritage in the young. But, above all, your lack of common sense – and I wonder how you have defined this expression in the Junior Dictionary – leads to the wealth of words we have in the English dictionary becoming an endangered species for the young, brainy or not. This will only serve to place us further down the food chain in terms of education on the world stage. We need more boisterous ambitions than just to take the English language and classify the curriculum in terms of the colloquial only. (With no apologies for the alliteration, there.) I urge you to think again before your next update, to negotiate on the creep of political-correctness that appears to have fixed fast in your apparatus. In fifty years’ time, I hope for all our sakes that your actions now do not become a cautionary tale then. Perhaps you could try a compulsory committee of bungee jumping exercises to bounce some sense into your heads? Yours faithfully, Crimeficreader P.S. And with all reference to aisles and pews, pulpits and parishes, psalms and sins removed from today’s Junior Dictionary, how are our children going to appreciate the re-runs of The Vicar of Dibley in 50 years time? I bet David Attenborough is feeling miffed too.
Following on from the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards season, Martina Cole came up as a presenter on the lesser-viewed ITV channels as a presenter on a programme/series focused on crime. Then, earlier yesterday evening, historical crime writer Andrew Martin popped up as presenter on Time Shift on BBC2, exploring the history of our railways in the UK. (His novels concentrate on the railways in days gone by.) And last night we had John Harvey exploring Henning Mankell on BBC4, as noted in the previous post.
Is "TV presenter" the next arm to a successful crime fiction author? Can such an author succeed without this element of exposure on TV? What do we want as readers: dedication to the author for the author's sake and value, or loyalty to the fictional stories they deliver?
Does TV presenting work enhance or detract from the author's main focus of work, in written form?
I am interested in your comments, fellow readers. So please leave your thoughts here.
There was an interesting treat on BBC4 last night in the form of the documentary Who is Kurt Wallander? which can still be seen for a few days on BBC's iplayer here. Presented by the UK's crime writer John Harvey, creator of Resnick, the programme includes interview slots with: Henning Mankell; people who know or who have known the author and creator of Wallander; Kenneth Brannagh (currently bringing the UK version to our screens at the BBC, with the second episode on later tonight); US crime author Jeffery Deaver; and finally, UK award winning crime author, aficionado and champion of Scandinavian crime fiction in translation, Ann Cleeves (who has great insight).
The programme also follows the developments of Sweden, socially, politically and demographically over the last 50 years or so and includes some black & white Alan Whicker archive footage, (reminding us of the quality of insight we once experienced on TV when it came to opening up the world through the box).
There are some touching moments too. Sadly, the actress who played Wallander's daughter in the Swedish screened version of Before The Frost committed suicide not long after the programme was completed. Mankell said he felt he could not replace her with another actress and that the viewers would not accept someone new. If you watch that programme, which followed the documentary and is also currently available on iplayer, you can see why.
Another touching moment came when Mankell talked of the time when his father had become a judge and the family lived above the courthouse. He and his sister were asked to stay quiet on one day of the week as this was the day that sentences were passed. When Mankell heard footsteps on the stairs, he knew what was coming next: his toy cars would be required for the courtroom. His father often became impatient with those involved in car traffic accident cases who had difficulty remembering and explaining the accident. Thus the toys were deployed to assist in getting at the facts.
In his work as a presenter, John Harvey was great and sometimes came across as droll which hit the nail on the head. He even did the Wallander tour of Ystad which included Wallander's culinary treats. I have never eaten a hot dog in my life, but I've seen a few. Although I've never seen a hot dog like the one Harvey picked up from a favourite spot of the fictional Wallander, which is a real outlet. Why did the sausage pop out so much from the bun? If anyone can enlighten me...
More on the UK series with Brannagh to come later. I have recorded my thoughts on the first in the series - mixed reaction and overall very good - but want to watch the second to see how it beds in.
Don't miss this documentary, to be seen here. And it's also well worth a view of the Swedish screen version of Before the Frost which can be found on iplayer. For both programmes the words interesting, compelling, educational and entertaining come to mind immediately.
Here is a salient reminder about the risks and potential consequences. It wouldn't surprise me if our EU friends in Brussels come up with some new laws on blogs soon.
UK-based reader of crime fiction for many years.
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