The Years by Annie Ernaux – well-reviewed and Nobel Prize-winning French autobiographical novel in translation. The thing which attracted me to this reminiscence of the years 1941 to 2006 is that it’s written not in the first person singular (I) but the first person plural (we) or third person (she) - presumably some of these at least are translations of the French on, which sounds less pretentious than the English equivalent (one). Supposedly this makes it more general, the story of her generation, but I didn’t buy it. When she says “We couldn't wait to take Confirmation,” I think, what, everyone? Everyone in France of that age? It came over to me not as socialised but as uncritically ego-centric. A big disappointment, though the details of French life across the years are interesting enough.
His Dark Materials, series 3 – The mighty story winds its way to its sad conclusion in the BBC adaptation. The visual realisation is as stunning as ever – they even managed to make sense of the roller-skating elephants – but Daphne Keen as Lyra, who was an excellent child actor in the first two series, as an adult is only good. But as before, the show is taken into the stratosphere by the wonderful performance of Ruth Wilson as Marissa Coulter, whose wordless reactions to the puerile war preparations of her sometime lover Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) justifies the price of admission on its own.
'Spearhead from space', 'Terror of the autons' – Doctor Who four-episode stories from 1970 and 1971, being the openers of the first and second seasons of Jon Pertwee’s tenure: for my money the best of all the classic Doctors except the first. Stylish and in colour (showing off nicely his scarlet-lined cape), aristocratic (possibly even posh), full of action (featuring stuntmen from fight-arrangement-company Havoc), and decidedly scary, with plastic mannequins coming to life, killer plastic daffodils, and a man-eating inflatable plastic chair. And The Master, played as never-subsequently-equalled by the wonderfully satanic Roger Delgado. These episodes have aged very well, the only sour note being Pertwee’s frequent calling women “my dear” – and that was more of an issue with Katy Manning’s sweet-but-dim Jo Grant; nobody patronised the wonderful Liz Shaw (played by Caroline John), who was a fellow scientist and The Doctor’s colleague rather than his assistant, but who alas only lasted a single season. See also the fanfilm 'Dr Who Review, Part 4, the Jon Pertwee era'.
Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It, by Janina Ramirez – well-reviewed, and great fun to read, as one would expect from such a good TV historian, though a possibly misleading subtitle: it’s not a systematic history but rather a series of case studies of individual women, exploring what each tells us about the possible places for women in the medieval world. In my opinion, these are best when she is on her home territory of archaeology, as with the Birka warrior, rather than when she is doing history of ideas (my former territory), as with Hildegaard of Bingen, when some of the shortcoming are more evident to me. (So this woman wrote this stuff, but what significance did that stuff have in the context of the time?) There’s also an excellent Introduction on the history of views of medieval women, taking in the impact of the Reformation, Victorian “great man” history and Pre-Raphaelite painting, which starts with a highly plausible reconstruction of the likely intentions of suffragette Emily Wilding Davison who died after collision with the King’s horse at the 1913 Derby.
Embracelet – well-reviewed and award-nominated, beautiful and moving adventure game, from the maker of Milkmaid of the Milky Way. What’s unusual is that relationship-building is to the fore, as you take 17-year-old Norwegian Jesper to the island of Slepp in pursuit of his grandfather’s dying wish: that he returns a magical bracelet to its rightful owner. While on Slepp, he makes friends with cousins Karoline and Hermod – intimacy being built through skilfully-written dialogue choices. I found myself falling in love with Karoline, even as Jesper did under my playing, despite the low-polygon graphics with which everything is rendered and absence of voice acting. Interestingly, it’s also possible to fall in love with Hermod, or to decide that you’re not ready for a relationship. When the game was over, I missed Slepp and its beautiful soundtrack, though surely Norwegian islands can’t really be as warm and sunny all year round.
Tryin' Times – song by Roberta Flack, performed at the 2022 Cheltenham Jazz Festival by Adi Oasis (starts at 16:30). A key feature of the song is the lilting bassline, a steady pulsing repeated figure, and the unique thing about this performance is that Oasis is BOTH playing the electric bass, maintaining the rock steady pulse, AND singing the wild and free vocals. Massively impressive isolation, which somehow gives this song an almost spiritual level: it’s what you have to do, balance both elements in your life. (Note: this needs to be heard on a system with good bass response, otherwise it's just ordinary.)
Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear – another great Masie Dobbs detective novel; here she’s tracking down what happened to two people who served in the Great War, her investigation complicated by the discovery that both were involved in secret intelligence work, and that one was keeping a secret of his own (homosexuality). Oh yes, and somebody’s trying to kill her.
Babel by R F Kuang – well-reviewed thrilling, powerful, thought-provoking novel, set in an alternative early 19th century, in which four young people (two boys, Chinese and Indian, and two girls, Creole and white British) are recruited to the prestigious Babel Institute at the University of Oxford, housed in (of course) a large tower located just behind the Radcliffe Camera. The premise is that Britain’s industrial power is dependent on a kind of linguistic magic – word pairs in different languages, engraved on silver bars – which provides technical enhancements: engines are more efficient, structures are stronger, weapons are deadlier. The young people have effectively been co-opted to the furtherance of the British Empire, which creates personal conflict for at least three of them, especially the Chinese principal character, when they are sent to Canton in the lead up to what will become the first Opium War. Unsettling questions, especially for those of us who are intellectuals and racially non-white: whose interests does our work really serve? Have we too been co-opted?
The Uncertain: Last Quiet Day – decently-reviewed, interesting but thin and awkward-to-operate adventure game, set in a world in which humans have apparently destroyed themselves through war, with the robots they created continuing to keep some kind of society going. The playable character, a robot designated RT-217NP (Artie for short), is quite fun, especially in his wry and uncomprehending comments at the relics of human technology, but the story is very short and frustratingly ends just he encounters a living human – one of the survivors being rounded up and killed by the robot bosses. Well, there's a sequel. I will see where that leads.
Ice Cold in Alex – old (1958) Second World War film, watched when I was isolating having tested positive for Covid. Great performances, and I was struck by how little (if any) music is used; the same film made today would use music frequently in every scene of tension to point up the emotion. Also the ending makes an interesting statement about Britishness: here, the willingness of the British characters to break the rules and save the life of a nominal enemy (a German) because of the relationship they have forged with him through shared hardship and reciprocal saving of lives. I think the majority of a cinema audience today would find that incomprehensible. "What? He's an enemy. Why are you protecting him?" But the film uncompromisingly stands up for what we used to call decency, which includes doing the right thing even if it's against the rules and it's to your disadvantage. I'm afraid it's quite gone out of fashion.
The Godfather – another old (1972) film watched during my Covid isolation. Definitely deserves its classic status, and Marlon Brando and Al Pacino in particular are superb and convincing.
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