'Carry On Regardless' by Caroline Frost

Few film series are so loved yet controversial as the Carry Ons.  Once a staple of weekend TV, I spent many an afternoon watching them as a child.  Some I loved, some... not so much.  But it wasn't until I read 'Carry On Regardless' by Caroline Front that I began to understand why.

How Dickens got his Words Back

'The Personal History of David Copperfield' (Dir. Armando Iannucci, 2019)

Watching Armando Iannucci's 'The Personal History of David Copperfield' has made me want to read the Charles Dickens' book.  And that's a compliment.  Honest.

Movie Magic Michael

'Who is Michael Ovitz?' by... erm... Michael Ovitz

Who doesn't love a good Hollywood movie?  If you've ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes to make the magic happen, then 'Who is Michael Ovitz?' might be just the book for you.

Super-agent Michael Ovitz was once one of the biggest Hollywood names you hadn't heard of.  As joint owner of innovative creative agency CAA, he worked 24/7 to recruit and package perfect combinations of talented writers, directors and actors to work on films and TV shows in the '70s, '80s and '90s.  Thanks to his eye for great talent and an alchemist-like instinct for mixing the right creative ingredients, Ovitz was often at the birth of box office gold.  His deals led to hits like 'Rain Man', 'Ghostbusters', 'Jurassic Park', 'Tootsie', 'Schindler's List' and the epic TV mini-series 'Shogun'.  Not bad for a kid from the San Fernando Valley whose career began as a Universal Studios tour guide before he talked his way into a post in the William Morris Agency mailroom.  But though this story takes place in the City of Angels, Ovitz was no saint, and his hard-nosed work ethic, drive and often blinkered focus on making the deal made friends into enemies and enemies into friends.  By the end, his reputation had taken some hard knocks and gossip was rife.  In this book, he aims to set out his side of the story.

Could you Make it Up?

'Truths, Half Truths & Little White Lies: A Memoir' by Nick Frost (Hodder & Stoughton, 2015)

Hello everyone!  As you may have noticed, I'm a bit of a sucker for a celebrity biography.  My most recent read is 'Truths, Half Truths and Little White Lies: A Memoir' by film and TV actor Nick Frost.

(You know, the chap in the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy.  And 'Spaced'.  And 'Cuban Fury'.  Simon Pegg's mate.  Oh, for goodness sake, if you're not sure, Google him!  Know who I mean now?  Good, let's proceed...)

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'The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex' by Mark Kermode

So, from lost letters, we move on to potentially lost causes in Mark Kermode's 'The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex'.

Esteemed film critic Mark Kermode is back with a reasoned polemic on the state of cinema and why the current system is failing us, the audience.  Kermode discusses the demise of the projectionist and the knock on effect for performance quality, how remaking popular foreign language films means a lot is lost in translation and independent cinemas' ongoing battle for survival.  This is a book that questions the familiar headlines, revealing that the British are rarely coming (no matter how many Oscars Dame Judi Dench and Colin Firth win) and that, despite the hype, 3D is far from the future.  High noon is approaching, and Sheriff Kermode clearly has no plans to get out of Dodge.

The Princess's Direst

I bet you thought it was safe here.  I bet you thought that it would be easy to hide on a little book blog like this.  Well, I'm sorry folks.  You thought that only the cinema was dominated by Star Wars incarnations, but, like the many-tentacled Sarlacc, I'm afraid the popular space adventure's long, elasticated reach has made it into this little corner of the internet too.  I have finished reading 'The Princess Diarist' by the late Carrie Fisher.

'The Princess Diarist' is sub-titled 'A sort of memoir...' and that's a fairly accurate description.  Unlike her other autobiographical work, it's dedicated to her relationship with the character of Princess Leia, Fisher's on-set affair with Harrison Ford and the unexpected impact of the worldwide phenomenon that Star Wars became and continues to be.  The book's name comes from it's inspiration; a collection of journals that the 19-year-old Fisher wrote while filming the original Star Wars film in 1976.  'The Princess Diarist' is Fisher's reflection on her most famous role, how actor and character became almost indistinguishable in the popular imagination and the highs and lows that come with having such a huge hit so early in your career.

Destination Unknown

I do not want to write this post.  The trouble is that if I don't, I'm not going to settle to any new books for a while, and I don't want that either.  So here goes.  A rather delayed review of 'Where Am I Now?' by Mara Wilson.

'Where Am I Now?' is the memoir of former child actress Mara Wilson, best known for her roles in 'Mrs Doubtfire' and 'Matilda'.  In this book, Wilson looks back on her life so far and the journey that's led her from a childhood in California and early worldwide film stardom, to life as a twenty-something writer and storyteller in New York.  As well as describing growing up on set, working with people including Robin Williams and Danny Devito, and her love for family and friends, she also shares personal stories about the death of her mother when Wilson was just eight, struggles with OCD, depression and anxiety and the career challenges that follow early success.

Real to Reel

Disclaimer: Today is very, very hot.  As a result, this post might be complete gibberish.  If so, I apologise.  If not, I clearly have more stamina than I realise.  But the only way you're going to find out is by reading on!

'It's Only a Movie'
by Mark Kermode
(Random House, 2010)

While recovering from a bout of flu earlier this month, I staggered to the bookshelf and, with much effort, coughing and spluttering, managed to pick up 'It's Only a Movie: Reel Life Adventures of a Film Obsessive' by established critic Mark Kermode.  Fortunately, it was a good choice.

'It's Only a Movie' is a charming, whistlestop tour through Kermode's life and career as a film journalist in print and on radio.  An entertaining collection of loosely linked anecdotes, it hop, skips and jumps through tales of how his childhood obsession developed into an unlikely career with the energy of a comic book fan on their way to yet another superhero movie.  From inspirational schoolboy cinema visits, to teenage pretension and adult near incompetence at university and in his early jobs, this is the story of a man who nearly ruins Time Out, gets shot at in LA, champions horror movies, enters a long term, on air relationship, is broken by Russia, gets kicked out of Cannes Film Festival and, of course, watches an awful lot of movies.  When there's love, peril and (hopefully) a happy ending, it's bound to be a hit.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It's silly, but it's fun.  The author freely admits that he may not be quite telling the truth, but that's fine.  He clearly knows that the stories he's telling are just a bit nuts, perhaps only believing them himself because he was there.

One thing that did please me was that name dropping was kept to a minimum.  It would've been so easy to wheel out a load of gossip about the big industry names just to attract a wider audience, but fortunately Kermode hasn't stooped to this and it's a much better book for it.  You get the impression that, with a few specific exceptions, it's the movies that matter and he finds the whole celebrity circus a bit gross.  This means that it's the art form that he loves that stays centre stage.

As a result, this is a great book for movie buffs, a bit of a change from all those expensive, in depth 'making of' books and long nights spent arguing over the top 50 1980s South Korean horror movies.  Come out of the cinema and read this in the sunshine, people.  Although maybe not on a day like this...

Now, what next...

The Old Man and the Spy

It's taken a while, but I have finally finished the AudioGo recording of Ian Fleming's 'From Russia with Love'.  This version was read by Toby Stephens, who fans will recognise as the villain Gustav Graves from 'Die Another Day'.

'From Russia with Love' by Ian Fleming
Read by Toby Stephens
(AudioGo, 2012)

James Bond is a marked man.  The Russian spy-killers SMERSH have decided they need to bag a big name and none come bigger than Bond.  Orchestrated by Colonel Rosa Klebb and chess master Kronsteen, SMERSH set a trap with the twin temptations of the beautiful Corporal Tatiana Romanova and a top secret Spektor coding machine.  Although suspicious, M and Bond decide it is a prize worth making a play for and before long the famous secret agent is on his way to Istanbul, unaware that Russia's top assassin, Donovan Grant, is on his tail...

Unfortunately, I found this story hard work.  It starts well enough, with a focus on Grant and his origins, but once the story moved to the boardrooms of the Russian military, my mind began to wander.  In the paperback, it's more than 90 pages before Bond makes an appearance, but it's hard to believe that it's purely his absence that stopped it holding my attention.  I usually like it when Fleming tries something different, but I think this time it fell a bit flat and led to a lack of tension early on, for me anyway.

Whether I enjoy each Bond novel often seems to hinge on how much I like the female lead.  Romanova seemed a bit too much of a push-over, little more than a pair of blue eyes and some fluttering lashes.  That may appeal to a certain male audience, but I'm afraid I need a brain too please.  I know that the girls can't outshine Bond and that these books represent the values of a different era, but it's always more fun when the ladies get a look in on the action rather than just being damsels in distress.

I think my love of the film version was also a big problem here.  'From Russia with Love' is one of

'From Russia with Love'
by Ian Fleming
(Penguin Modern Classics, 2004)

my favourites, so I had high hopes that the book would exceed the movie and flesh out the key characters, particularly Kerim and Klebb.  To a degree it did, but unfortunately I didn't really like what I found out, especially about the apparently lovable Kerim.  I'm very glad that the sexual politics of today don't accept 'taming' women the same way they did in 1957.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed by the book.  Perhaps people who haven't seen the film will get more out of it because they don't know the basic plot, but I doubt there are many people who haven't watched it already and that doesn't make up for the dodgy way the female characters are portrayed and treated.  On the whole, like Grant and Klebb, it's a bit odd, but that won't stop me pushing on with the rest of Fleming's novels.

I will return.... with the rather different 'The Victorian Chaise-Longue' by Marghanita Laski!

Related Posts

'Casino Royale'
'Live and Let Die'
'Moonraker'
'Dr No'
'For Your Eyes Only'
'Thunderball'
'Octopussy, the Living Daylights and Other Stories'

Tiger Feat

Although I worry that I shouldn't, I bloody love zoos.  To be honest, I could probably write a blog just about them, but I won't, because, well, that's not what you want to hear about really, is it?  And after all, surely the next best thing to going to a zoo is reading about them and the amazing people that run them.

'We Bought a Zoo'
by Benjamin Mee
(Harper, 2008/9)

I've just finished 'We Bought a Zoo', the unusual story of how journalist Benjamin Mee and his family ended up owning Dartmoor Zoological Park in Devon.  At the start of this story, Mee, his wife Katherine and two young children have just moved to France and are settling into a new life abroad, quite literally building themselves a home in the sunshine.  But then Mee hears the call of the wild.  His sister sends him details of a UK zoo that has just come on the market and the opportunity is irresistible.  Benjamin, his mum and siblings decide to follow their hearts and buy the failing zoo.  But can they overcome years of neglect, Houdini-like animals and cold hearted bankers to get Dartmoor off the endangered list?

This really is an enchanting story of passionate commitment and, in many ways, living a dream, but if you were expecting a perky, happy-go-lucky tale, think again.  While this book is very charming and down-to-earth, there is also personal tragedy at its heart.  Six months after buying the zoo, Mr Mee's wife, Katherine, dies.  As a reader, I appreciated the honesty of Mr Mee's writing about what happened and it makes his work for the zoo seem all the more incredible.

Despite the tough subject matter, this book is written in a flowing and conversational style which makes it relatively easy to read.  Part of me feels that it could do with some work in places.  For example, some sentences seem to go on like boa constrictors, so long that you can't remember their beginnings, and periodically words are repeated within lines, which is quite distracting for a language nerd like me.  I would've liked more structure too, but I suspect that this book was written around the many other duties which keep a Zoo Director busy and might have been rushed as an additional opportunity to bring more money into the park.  As such, I'm not going to nitpick about what is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.

Overall, this is a charming and thought-provoking book that I would recommend to anyone who has ever fallen in love with a zoo.  But it is just the beginning.  Like me, other readers will want to know what happens next, more about the animals, whether Mee ever got his zebras, what it's like to actually run a working zoo rather than just prepare it for opening.  I'm lucky, I've actually visited Dartmoor Zoological Park and seen what's happening, but even I can't go as often as I would like.  So while quite a few people will be getting copies of this as Christmas presents, what I really want this year is a sequel, perhaps even a series of sequels.  Now that would be animal magic.

Night of the Loving Dead

Until relatively recently, I'd always wanted to write a story from a monster's perspective, like a vampire or a mummy or something like that.  Having read Isaac Marion's 'Warm Bodies', I think that the idea's been done very well already.

'Warm Bodies' is the story of R, a zombie with a difference.  While he can't remember his name, how long he's been dead or how the world ended, he's still has human curiosity.  He longs to be able to know these things and more, although he's not entirely sure why.  Trapped in his own head, he chases the same thoughts every day while instinctively following the same mindless routines.  Then while on a feeding expedition in the nearby city, he meets Julie and everything changes.  Rather than eating her, R brings Julie back to his airport home.  All he wants to do is keep her safe and this sudden and perplexing change marks the beginning of something quite extraordinary.

'Warm Bodies'
by Isaac Marion
(Vintage, 2013)

I saw a review of the film based on this novel and thought it sounded like an interesting story.  Being a bit squeamish, I decided to read the book first rather than plunging right in with the movie and I'm really glad I did.  I was a bit worried that it would be squarely aimed at the teen market and a bit twee, but it isn't that simple.  R is after all a monster, something that hunts and eats humans while bits of him gradually rot and fall off. Not the most obvious of romantic heroes!  But then neither are the manipulative and obsessive Heathcliff and bullying wife-jailer Mr Rochester.

Marion sucks the reader into R's mind from the very first line and from the moment I read it I was hooked.  This is not a book about romantic love per se, rather a story themed around the things the writer loves about humanity, the characteristics that take us beyond our animal instincts and basic desires for shelter, food and flesh. As such, it's themes are more universal and thought provoking and the fragile first love that develops between R and Julie is one of just a number of human-esque features that set you thinking about what it means to be alive.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, particularly because it doesn't answer all the questions it raises.  Although it's hinted at, we never firmly find out how the zombie plague came about or when it happened, for example.  But I think that's what sets it apart from other apocalyptic stories.  This isn't a tale about how the old world ended but how a new one began.  And surely that's far more interesting and optimistic, don't you think?

The Man with the Golden Pun

I've just finished reading 'My Word is My Bond' by Sir Roger Moore.  Some how I don't feel so bad reading celebrity biographies if the writer is over 80!

'My Word is My Bond' is Sir Roger's story of his life, the people he's had the pleasure (and sometimes displeasure) of meeting and his work, on screen as the Saint and James Bond and off screen for UNICEF.  His life so far has been a busy one and he shares stories from his Second World War childhood, his early struggles as a jobbing actor, striking it lucky in TV and the movies and how his fame led to his charity work.

I loved the way this book was written.  It was almost exactly like sitting down by the fire with an elderly relative and just letting them talk away about their life.  I'm almost sad that I didn't listen to the audiobook instead of reading the print version!  It makes the narrative feel like it's For Your Eyes Only, cosy and almost intimate.

Sir Roger is undoubtedly a total charmer and I defy anyone to not get drawn in by him when they read this book, even though it's a little saucy in places.  Somehow he's not ended up with the Moonraker, he still has his feet on the ground and the common touch, which means he knows what the reader wants and gives it to them.  Let's face it, we all love a bit of celebrity gossip, but we don't want cruelty nor bitchiness, so Moore's Live and Let Die attitude does him credit.  He tells stories about the more unpleasant characters he's met, but doesn't name names.

'My Word is My Bond' by Roger Moore
(Michael O'Mara Books Ltd, 2008)

I read this book at a really good time because I've been given a complete set of Bond films and set myself the project of watching them in order from 'Dr No' to 'Skyfall'.  My next one will be 'Octopussy', so I've been able to read Moore's behind the scenes tales while watching the relevant movies.  It was great to see him mention 'The Man Who Haunted Himself', which is a great little film that I was introduced to a few years ago.  It always struck me as a bit strange that the big star of 'A View to a Kill' had been in such an unusual British production, but now I know that was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what he did, so I'll have to seek out some more of his work.  I've never watched 'The Saint', so hopefully I'm in for a treat there.

My only (minor) criticism is that the book ends with a rather clunky A-Z of places Sir Roger and his wife have visited as part of their UNICEF work.  Unfortunately, some of the stories become a bit samey and as such started to lose their impact over time.  Part of me feels that a separate book about this aspect of Moore's life would have allowed him to go into more depth and make it more interesting, but it might've been hard going for the reader.  I think it might have worked better if these stories had been woven into the rest of the book, but understand that the author wanted to leave the reader with a message about the charity and the important work it does.  As I said earlier, he's such a charmer, by the end you'll let him get away with a lot!

Overall, this is not so much The Spy who Loved Me, but The Spy who is Loved, a light, funny, interesting read, good for on the plane as you jet off to your very own exotic Bond film location.

Now to decide what next.  I'm in the mood for a bit of Gothic horror, but whether I'll still be by the time I get to the shelves you never know!

Getting A Head

I've just finished reading 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' by Washington Irving on Kindle, an appropriate story for this time of year and the sort of weather we've been having this week!

'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' is a short story set in New England in the 1800s.  Sleepy Hollow is an idyllic rural area where the Dutch settlers enjoy nothing more than a night swapping 'true' ghost stories on the porch after a good meal.  Into their company comes Ichabod Crane, the school master employed by the community  to teach the local boys.  The geeky dreamer takes a shine to heiress Katrina Van Tassell, much to the annoyance of her beau, the mischievous Abraham Van Brunt.  After an evening of spooky tales and rejection by the flirtatious beauty, Crane begins the lonely journey home, only to end up riding into legend.

I've wanted to read this story for an awfully long time.  Ever since I can remember, it's come up in all sorts of programmes and movies I've watched, from Scooby Doo to the 1999 Johnny Depp/Tim Burton film.  After seeing how it permeated American culture, I wanted to know what had inspired them so in the original.

To be honest, I think the key word here is culture.  Just as it's hard to say why British stories such as the Loch Ness Monster or Beast of Bodmin Moor have caught the public imagination, I'm a bit perplexed as to why this story has seemed to me to be everywhere!

'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' is an OK story, with some excellently observed descriptions of the American countryside, but it's the latter that make it worth a read rather than the former.  Perhaps the reason it's had such longevity is its simplicity - it makes it endlessly adaptable and possible to build a number of plots around the basic relationships of the key players.

'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' is a good, quick read for a classic dark, chilly winter's night, but don't expect to have nightmares or even find yourself spooked by something glimpsed from the corner of your eye.  Unless of course you spend a lot of time walking through forests in the dark.

Right then, what next?

No More Heroes...

I have just finished 'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson, a relatively short book often cited as a classic of Science Fiction and Horror and the first book to combine the two great genres.  I've not seen the Will Smith film, but may do having read the book.

'I am Legend' by
Richard Matheson
(Film Tie-In Edition,
2007, Gollancz)

'I am Legend' is the intense and claustrophobic story of Robert Neville, (quite possibly) the last man standing after a plague has swept through the human race and made vampires a nightly reality.  Trapped in his own world and left with nothing but memories and his survival instinct, the book tracks Neville's character over three years as he battles demons without and within.

Although this was a fantastically written book, capturing and developing the character of Robert Neville to great effect, I'm finding it hard to be passionate about it.  Then again, that may just be the nature of the genre.  After all, how many people want to recommend something they know may scare?  I don't really want to give people nightmares!  To be fair, though, this book isn't particularly gory, even for my relatively low horror threshold.

Speaking for myself, I found this book completely engrossing.  The first half presents a fascinating, close quarters analysis of how someone might react and behave in such extraordinary circumstances and highlights the author's incredible imagination.  In the second half, as Neville's mood moves from despair to acceptance, the pace of the novella changes and the plot starts moving towards its almost inevitable climax and conclusion.

Also - always the sign of a classic - the book doesn't feel at all dated, despite the fact that it's 57 years old.  I love it when that happens.  It's nice to know that when change comes, it doesn't automatically make everything that came before irrelevant and obsolete.  It's horrible to think that the meaning of things we care about today may be completely lost to future generations, just as the significance of cave paintings or carved deities can only be guessed at by even the most eminent of modern academics.

Hmm, I'm clearly in a very philosophical mood today!

Anyway, back to the book.  I would recommend it if you like these sorts of apocalyptic tales, but I don't think there's enough of a meal here for even the most sharp-toothed literary analyst.  Then again, I doubt it was ever meant to be high culture, so, if you can, enjoy it for what it is.  An engaging twentieth century classic.