In a week when the news has left me jaded, my favourite story has been that of a 1938 Austin Seven Ruby which has just passed its first MOT, 54 years after it was last on the road. On 18th February 1941, the same car was almost written off by a Luftwaffe bomb in the town of Newmarket,…
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A small column from The Evening Standard last week about Jean Rhys led me to look her up today on-line. Having only seen an interview with the author as an older woman, reflective and reclusive, I am intrigued to find the most enchanting portrait of a young woman, her eyes of the palest blue, open and unguarded. I don’t why this should…
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When browsing in your favourite bookshop, how do you decide which book to select? Is it the cover that first attracts you? The blurb? The tag-line? Do you then turn to the front page and read the first paragraph? Or do you do as Billy Crystal’s Harry (of When Harry Met Sally) suggests and read the…
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If, like me, you can remember Why Don’t You (Switch off your Television Set and go and do something Less Boring Instead)? we probably have a lot in common. We can remember the days when television was the only distraction; when we were warned by parents that we would end up with square eyes; when there…
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7th Feb 1812: no one can have escaped the fact that today is the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens’s birth. But his life might have ended five years earlier to the day (9th June 1865) when he was involved in the notorious Staplehurst rail crash, described in newspaper reports as “The most disastrous accident which has…
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Well, not absolute silence, but who can forget the moment in The Artist when the sound kicked in and there was only breathing? The creative team at  Moonbot Studios have drawn their from Buster Keaton to bring you a perfect short, The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore (although they also pay homage to The Wizard of…
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After organizing our bookshelves, Sean Ohlenkamp and his wife decided to take it to the next level. They spent many sleepless nights moving, stacking, and animating books at Type bookstore in Toronto (883 Queen Street West, (416) 366-8973). This beautiful video is the result. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKVcQnyEIT8 A quick youtube search led me to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=Pw5LlSKKG3M

Q: When does a series of short stories become a novel?: A When it is A Visit From the Goon Squad. First of all, let me be very clear: I love, love, love this book! In the same way that Robert Altman introduced us to the residents of LA in his 1993 film Short Cuts, in…
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As someone with a keen interest in photography – and its history – I’m saddened by the news that Kodak has been forced to file for bankruptcy. Producing the first film on rolls (1883), giving the world the first consumer camera (1880); with its pocket-folding camera (1897) it made photography portable, and, with the launch of the…
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