April 2019.

Two good books. Boom!

Eric Vuillard’s translated The Order of the Day is a brilliant, funny, terrifying and highly judgemental book about the Nazi invasion of Austria. It is also highly readable and highly recommended.  And Joe Dunthorne’s new book (he wrote Submarine) is excellent; it’s called The Adulterants and it’s one of those books that has your squirming in horror and laughing at the same time. A book about screwing up and repentance.

I think Local Hero is possibly the finest film ever made. You may not agree but I hope you like it; I sort of feel that if you don’t like it then you and I can never be true friends. Anyway, a musical of the film has just opened in Edinburgh and it’s an absolute wonder; funny, sad, melancholy. I am not normally someone who might recommend a musical; in fact they generally make me feel a bit sick. But the music here is by Mark Knopfler who did the original soundtrack. It’s transferring to The Old Vic next year. If you like the film you’ll like the musical. It was rapturously received on the night we went. Recommended.

Paradise is a terrific murder mystery podcast from the BBC. It’s still playing out as I write. Talking of podcasts there’s a TV show that delves into the case behind Serial’s first series. The Case Against Adnan Syed is good and shows, if nothing else, how unbelievably complicated this sort of case is when investigated deeply.