Katherine Clements picks the best costume drama to watch over the festive season. The Crown (Netflix, from 8th December) When The Crown first aired last year it was much hyped as the most expensive TV series ever made. I doubted whether a show about our current royals would live up to such grand claims. I was […]
Review: Alias Grace – the Book, the Woman and the Mini Series
Anna Mazzola reviews Netflix’s new adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace. When she was 17, actor Sarah Polley wrote to Margaret Atwood asking her for the movie rights to Alias Grace. That was pretty ballsy. I also read Alias Grace when I was about 17. I then read it another four times over the following […]
I know this story isn’t a novel, but I’m not a biographer!
Dear Dr Darwin I recently came upon a long-dead member of my family, Jebediah, who did some amazing things, in all sorts of places in the world. I think lots of people would find Jebediah fascinating, but I’m not equipped to do the formal, thorough research that a biography would need. Nor is there a […]
Review: Peaky Blinders, Season 4, Episode 1
‘We’re going back … back to Small Heath,’ says a blood-spattered Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy), in the opening episode of Peaky Blinders, Season 4. ‘Back where you belong,’ replies Johnny Dogs (Packy Lee) – he knows, as do we, that Tommy can’t escape his roots. Season 3 of Peaky Blinders was about Tommy’s attempt to […]
Review: Gunpowder
Gunpowder (Episode 1/3, BBC One, 21/10/2017) follows the motivation and execution of an act of terrorism. I am aware that the use of that word is both anachronistic and subject to technical objections so I will clarify by saying that it is an example of violent action by individuals against executives of the state. We […]
Review: Victoria and Abdul
Victoria and Abdul (dir: Stephen Frears) is the latest example of an established genre of films which has developed the trick of holding up a mirror to the British as a people, seeing a certain amount of ugliness but then managing to come up smelling of roses. The ugliness we see is usually something along […]
Historian? Novelist? Reader? Who should I go to for feedback?
Dear Dr Darwin I’ve got to the stage where I want feedback on my novel-in-progress, but I only know non-historical novelists, or non-novelist historians, or readers of historical fiction who don’t write it. I don’t want to ask too many at once, for fear of getting confused, so which should I go for? P.S. I […]
Desert Island Books: Victoria Blake
I have absolutely no illusions that I’d last very long. The crabs would be nibbling on my toes in about a month I reckon, so I don’t think the length of the books matters much because I won’t have much time to read them. And I’m not going to waste any time with worthy books I […]