Something else I've re-realised ... is my own belief in keeping the story simple, and I watched ... a wonderful example of this last night in the 2026 film, 'The Bone Temple'.

I played the first Fallout game back in the day and loved it, so I was quietly looking forward to this adaptation of the game to telly...

I was really looking forward to this film, but then at its release a lot of historical purists were quite vehement in their disappointment. As a result I decided not to go to the cinema, but wait until the film was available through Firestick, and more affordable to me. I also decided to approach it as a Hollywood-style retelling - full of artistic license, fictional niceties, and one eye closed to historical facts - rather than getting annoyed at historical minutiae. After a

I've not been out this week. Mainly to do with rain - it's been torrential in the UK, and I jest not when I say the garden is like a rainforest - but also because I've felt a bit withdrawn; anxiety playing round the edges, and my brain being a bit off kilter. C'est cool. My writing has kept me busy, I passed the 55K mark the other day on the WIP, and, when I've not been writing, I've been watching. Films mainly. Favourites that are easy to watch and don't tax my brain - I kno

For the last couple of weeks my blog has focussed on books - namely Tolkien's 'THE SILMARILLION' - and with 'THE CHILDREN OF HURIN' on its way to me, I will be returning to Middle Earth in the not so distant future. Okay. So what have I been doing instead of reading? I've been watching! Oh yes. Netflix's much anticipated STRANGER THINGS 4 was released on Friday. I wanted to savour it, draw the watching experience out, and I failed miserably. I couldn't stop watching. It was b

I have to say I'm right into getting theatrical and extended cuts for historical and fantasy films these days. The first one I invested in was 'The Kingdom of Heaven', and it was just so much the better. Troy was the same, some of the battle effects they cut were amazing - made me wince - and then of course the three Lord of the Rings films - I can't even entertain watching the cutdown cinema versions anymore. Far too much was lost. And so the other day I stumbled on the exte

I'm a huge fan of the Sopranos. Loved everything about it. The characters, their quirks, the dark humour, broken personalities, drama, violence, tenderness and never ever knowing what was going to happen next. So I was really looking forward to The Many Saints of Newark, a film that promised a young Tony in the making. Now, I'd heard some troubling, unsupportive reviews but I remained openminded, excited. Last night I watched it. And I am conflicted. Really! Conflicted. For

DreamSwarm celebrates the art and artists of a strange place. The brainchild and baby of Andy Mark Simpson, it is a place that enjoys the art and feeling of the supernatural, the otherworldly, yet encompasses those works that do not necessarily fit within the popular, more mainstream genre conventions of traditional Horror and Science-Fiction. This is the liminal world of Fae and folklore, myth, magical realism, and urban darkness - where time travel simply is the hum of an e

Time I reinvigorated the blog. It's been awhile. Being a recluse - and indeed having become even more reclusive over the last couple of years - I guess I was struggling with content. Indeed, my mind has made it difficult to read too, and so book reviews dried up. Now, with the onset of 2022 and all we've all been through with Covid, lockdowns, and the like, I think it's time to start anew. Push this old soul back out into the world and hopefully put some smiles on faces. I fi

Having taken an unintended writing break (bar writing short stories and dramatic whimsey) after completing Life of Maggot, I find I am again needing to play with words, so as to be ready when the Muse does eventually dance. Hence two blog posts in a week. This post, though, will be around one of my other main passions - watching film and TV - and today my thoughts on watching the film 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs'. As a once prolific reader - child and adult - whose ability