The image is an enlarged version of the social media icon ‘rainbow eye’ by ‘celticfire’

Documentaries:

Stonehenge: the lost circle revealed***** BBC2 with Prof Alice Roberts. This is on iPlayer for eleven months and is well worth watching if you’re in UK. A new approach to Stonehenge suggests the source of the inner circle of bluestones in West Wales. Roberts on archaeology is always worth listening to.

Monty Don’s American Gardens***** BBC2.The series is probably available on iPlayer. This was a kind of eye candy with beautiful gardens, but it was also a fascinating tour of the US seen through some of its most famous gardens.

Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland***** The two programmes were on Channel 5 so will be available on My5. Dunbar makes a good presenter. He is very relaxed, clearly loves his country, and listens carefully to the local experts he interviews. I’m looking forward to the new season of Line of Duty later in March.

Our Dementia Choir with Vicky McClure: Dementia Choir at Christmas**** On BBC. Last year Vicky took us through a fascinating experiment to see how music affected dementia sufferers, particularly those who were comparatively young. This was a follow up programme and although I cried and loved what happened I was disappointed that we only saw a couple of the original singers. That suggests the rest might have deteriorated beyond interview, but it would have been good to know something about them. Another brilliant presenter whose return to acting in Line of Duty will be welcomed (along with Martin Compston whose work I enjoyed last month in the dram Traces).

Drama

Deliver Us***** Danish crime – Scandi very noir on All4. A group of people in a small town wants to rid the community of a psycopath. The series explores the way people can descend into irrational or hateful actions when sufficiently provoked. Fascinating, dark, and gripping.

The Fall*****Irish (Belfast) crime, about as noir as the Scandi stuff. I was impressed by the filming and direction, especially the way scenes were cut so as to mirror the behaviour of the criminal and the police e.g. in bedroom, bathroom, car, etc. I was less impressed by Gillian Anderson as the lead investigator and thought she was badly cast, too glamorous for a UK detective superintendent. I don’t usually like crime stories where I know the identity of the criminal (in this case a serial killer) from near the beginning, but this totally hooked me. All three seasons of it (and yes, three seasons’ worth of one crime) are available on BBC iPlayer.  

Bullets**** Finnish crime (terrorism and intelligence), also on All4. This is, if anything, even darker than the two other series mentioned. It is set in Finland with Finnish actors, but with some characters from Chechen and Russia. There are, for that reason, some sections in English though the bulk of the series needs subtitles. The filming is very dark but then it’s winter in Helsinki. It is also quite gory and at times I had to close my eyes.

Death in Paradise. Series 10.**** A relaxing change from all the Euro-noir! Death in Paradise is cosy mysteries with gentle humour set in glorious Caribbean surroundings. I like the way that although there is a seconded British policeman in charge of the station, Caribbean characters get plenty of opportunity to make their mark, especially as competent police as well as friendly locals. The deaths in question occur near the beginning of each episode and there is the comfort of knowing all will be solved within the hour. This season, there was a two-episode mystery which felt quite strange.

Music

Johnny Cash: Live in concert***** I really enjoyed this. We watched it on Channel 5 but there are similar shows all over the place. I have most of the songs on Spotify and on CD but it was great seeing them sung live.

The header picture is an enlarged version of a social media icon by nomnomicons. Sometimes I feel like that puppy – ready to rip pages apart!! It isn’t always a criticism of the book (or film) because other people might well enjoy what I hate. Just as I hate rice pudding and my husband loves it! So for some of you these comments might serve as recommendations!

On television

Willie Nelson and Friends: Outlaws and Angels

Some time ago I dithered about booking for an expensive concert in Manchester featuring Willie Nelson then decided against it because I realised it was entitled Willie Nelson and Friends and I had no idea how great a part the friends would play. I’m so glad I didn’t pay out for something like this! I still love Willie Nelson, but his friends are a very mixed bunch and although some of them are talented and some are to my taste, those two qualities don’t always overlap, and then there are others who are neither. I got tired of watching and listening and felt I could always listen to his albums without being asked to listen politely to his friends as well.

Arctic Murders

This was the series set in Iceland which we thought would be interesting though I had a suspicion it was based on a book I’d tried and abandoned. The detectives themselves were not especially exciting, though one, borrowed from Norway, had some strange family problems. They did, however, get themselves into ridiculous situations. After a while, it gets tiring trying to send some kind of psychic message to a fictional character telling them not to go into a dark house alone etc. My husband continued to watch the series so I kind of saw it out of the corner of my eye while reading a book.

The Investigation

This was another my husband watched but I got carried away with something else on my laptops with my headphones on. It was based on a true story about a Danish journalist who was found murdered and I vaguely remember the case, but the way it was told was so slow I just couldn’t be bothered with it.

Dawn French Live: 30 million minutes

I like Dawn French as a comic actress, for example in The Vicar of Dibley. This was more of an autobiography and I got thoroughly bored very quickly.

Books 

A picture perfect holiday by ZA Maxfield

This was told in first person and was, I’m sure, realistic, but since I don’t like listening to too much swearing in real life or reading too much of it on the page I quickly decided the narrator was not someone I wanted to follow. I am not, please understand, particularly prudish. I’m as likely as anyone to swear if provoked. However, although I know there are people who use swear words every other word, I don’t have to listen to them – or read about them. I usually like and recommend this author and was sad when I found this book not to my taste.

Hold Still by Lisa Regan

This was a book borrowed from the Amazon Prime library and I was glad I hadn’t paid for it. I found it slow and confusing and gave up after a couple of chapters. I now have no memory of what it was about except that it involved a boring American detective.

New Hope for the Little Cornish Farmhouse by Nancy Barone***

I got very tired of Nina and her inability to form sensible relationships with family, friends and lovers. I think I have less patience with ‘stupid’ heroines than their male counterparts.

Playing it out straight by Andrew McQuinn***

I can’t remember anything about this book other than the names of the main characters so it can’t have been very good.

Bound by Rhys Ford*** Chinatown Demons Book 1

I found this fantasy cop story disappointing. It started well with good world building and character development but the case was unresolved and the UST remained unresolved. I don’t mind some aspects of a tale being held over to volume two but this seemed altogether unfinished as a novel.  

Shatterproof Bond by Isobel Starling*** Boxed set of 3.

I usually like this author but I am not really a fan of spy stories and this alternated almost unbelievable Bond-style spy story with a lot of explicit sex that did not further either the plot or character development. If you’re a Bond fan and you like very steamy mm romance you’d probably enjoy these and I think there are more to come. Just a warning – the proof reading is not up to this writer’s usual standard. Probably not her fault but still something else that put me off.

Narrow Dog to Wigan Pier by Terry Darlington***

I adored the first two books in the Narrow Dog trilogy. I was disappointed in this final volume. The author alternates autobiography (not desperately interesting) with two canal trips in Britain (instead of France and America). The main problems were that as a result I never really got the sense of place that he brought to the French and American trips, and inevitably we saw less of the whippet, the narrow dog of the title.

And the less than stellar

Undermined by Ripley Hayes** subtitle: A Gay Mystery.

I think this is meant to be the first in a cop buddy series. I won’t be reading any more. The characters were two dimensional and the plot was unsatisfactory with an unbelievable solution to the mystery. The writing was technically competent, I suppose, in that the grammar was fine.

I’ll reach short stories etc. and fanfiction in a later post.

Well, short stories and a book of poetry – it was quite short so I’ve included it here.

The really really good. I don’t often give five stars to short stories but there were some real treats this month.

Dr Bones and the Christmas Wish by Emma Jameson***** I love this mystery series set in a Cornish village at the beginning of WWII. Dr Benjamin Bones is a wonderful ‘hero’ and his relationships with his neighbours and patients plus a budding romance with Lady Juliet are delightful. The author is clearly not British and there are occasional anachronisms as a result, but the stories are fascinating and heart warming and the style is assured.

Goldilocks and the Bear by Clare London***** The story of Gil, Bruin and the Christmas Tree. How do you get a large Christmas tree through a narrow door? The story is light hearted fun with lovely references to the fairy tale and plenty of innuendos for grown ups – a kind of textual pantomime. It brightened my day.

The White Gods by Lawrence Osborne ***** This story in the Christmas Special of New Statesman absolutely hooked me. A wealthy American family tour Mongolia with guides, and inadvertently disturb a grave. To say any more would be to give spoilers and I really hope some of you might be able to find it somewhere.

Frost at Midnight by Elin Gregory***** A gorgeous look at Dafydd and Colin sharing a farm in the Welsh countryside. It has Dafydd attending midnight mass, and there is snow in the hills. The perfect story for Christmas.

The good. This is my default setting for short stories as a rule.

Gifts for the Season edited by RJ Scott **** This collection had some really gorgeous stories but some were set in series I hadn’t read and I quickly learnt to avoid those. Anthologies are always difficult to grade as they inevitably have at least some content that is not to this reader’s taste. The profits go to The Trevor Project and the book is worth buying for all the lovely standalones, and because this is a worthwhile charity.

Katy by Bryan Washington**** This story appeared in the Guardian on 20th December. The narrator moves back to Katy (a town) to help his friend open a bakery. It’s a very sweet mm story that shows how people can be wrong about events in the past, and that there’s always hope for the future. It pleased me because it appeared in mainstream media with no hint of apology or explanation for its inclusion.

The readable – well written but ultimately boring to me.

A Christmas Intervention by Mara Ismine *** This was a very readable story but for my tastes there was too much explicit sex, especially for a short piece. If you like ‘steamy’ mm romance, you’d enjoy it because it’s well written.

Boxing Day 1975 by Drew Payne *** This can be found in Stories written on lined paper. It’s quite short and the use of Rashomon style is clever but didn’t go far enough. Drew isn’t afraid to experiment: Rashomon style uses more than one narrator for the same event and the reader has to make up their own mind about reliability. The story suggests one of the characters is outed as gay, and looks at family reactions but I would have preferred some kind of follow-up using the same technique.

 Travelling Light edited by A Elliott-Cannon and Neil Adams *** This is a book of poems I unearthed from one of our boxes and couldn’t remember having read. I’m not surprised. It’s a collection of semi-humorous poems by a variety of authors and the standards are very varied too. The good ones can be found in other anthologies.

And the ones I didn’t like

Handspun by Charlie Descoteaux** This is very short and is mostly explicit sex so although the writing is technically good I didn’t enjoy it at all.

Difficult Times by Adrian Tchaikovsky** A sci fi tale about a pop group called Cosmic Strings. It appeared in the New Scientist Christmas special. I nearly abandoned it but husband wanted confirmation that it was rubbish… It wasn’t well written and the concept could have been much better handled. Then we saw that the writer has had multiple awards for his work. I have no idea why.

Incidentally, I didn’t abandon any novels or short stories this month. In fact, the only thing I abandoned was the Peak Cavern Concert I referred to in my post about December viewing.

The picture is an enlarged version of an icon by roxicons.

All but one of my December reads were novels. There was an inevitable focus on holiday themed stories, most of them absolutely delightful. I should perhaps point out that the books are reviewed in the order in which I read them and not in any other order!

The excellent – really well written novels with exactly the kind of holiday cheer we all want at this time of year, especially after what 2020 threw at us! Buy them and save them for next December!

Wonderland by J Scott Coatsworth***** The zombie apocalypse, a helpful ghost and a snowed up cabin provide the background for a heartwarming mm romance.

Eight Nights in December by Keira Andrews***** This mm romance is built around Hannukah rather than Christmas and it’s always good to see other traditions given the star treatment.

A Cop for Christmas by Jamie Fessenden***** The relationship starts badly when the cop gives a speeding ticket to someone returning to the small town for the holidays. A lovely family centred mm romance with Rufus the dog to make it even more charming.

Finally Home by K-Lee Klein***** Josiah only went ‘home’ for Christmas to sort out his dad’s estate, but his childhood friend Wyatt might make him change his mind about selling.

Tic-Tac-Mistletoe by NR Walker***** Ren finds an Australian tourist whose rented car has gone offroad in a snowstorm. Another ‘snowed up together’ mm romance but beautifully done.

December Roses by Fiona Glass***** I’d probably give this six stars if I was willing to break my own rules. Nat was badly injured in Northern Ireland (during the ‘troubles’) and after hospital treatment is sent to Frogmorton Hall for rehabilitation. The story of how he meets Richie, who may not be all he seems, in the gardens of the hall encompasses glorious descriptions of the garden past and present, interesting personal issues, and an exploration of PTSD plus a reaction to injury. The world and character building are superb. Whilst Nat’s story is at times difficult it ends on a gloriously hopeful note.

Christmas Lane and Gingerbread and Mistletoe by Amy Aislin***** These two stories, each following a separate mm romance, bring the little town of Lighthouse Bay to life with all its characters and its holiday celebrations.

The good.

Cupcakes and Christmas by RJ Scott**** This is the only holiday story that lost a star. Not because of the plot, characters or style, all of which are excellent. The problem lay in the proof reading which surprised me. RJ Scott’s novels are usually exemplary. But here it was with changes of tense and person that I could imagine from a first draft but not in the finished publication. I can only think it was published in haste. As I said, the normal great plot, character development, etc. It takes place during a baking contest and the competition itself is fascinating, quite apart from the growing romance between Brody and Justin. However, I couldn’t honestly give it five stars because of the typos. Worth reading all the same.

Engines of Privilege by Francis Green and David Kynaston**** When I subscribed to New Statesman the subsscription offer included a book on the UK economy. They never sent that but gave me this instead. I didn’t open it for ages but once I did I was really interested. It’s a long and detailed study of the effects of the British Public School system and attempts, historical and current, to alter the situation. It has various suggestions for a way forward. I was particularly interested because I went to a Public School. I didn’t recognise all the aspects they described but then my school was a church school with a very small number of pupils, in the north, and was at the time for girls only so some of the things that apply to e.g. Eton and Harrow weren’t really applicable. I did recognise some things and was fascinated to read about studies that showed just how these affected our society in general and education in particular. I can recommend the book to anyone who is interested in education in UK as it provides a detailed overview and offers some new perspectives. It lost a star by being perhaps too long and too detailed for an overview.

The readable. Don’t pay for them but if you find them in the library you might be interested.

The Sitar by Rebecca Idris*** I struggled with this book. It contains romance but is mainly concerned with teenagers from ethnic minorities growing up in the Midlands, and how some of them are led into extremist groups and terrorism. The story was interesting, as were the main characters, but the author was clearly not a native English speaker. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but she really should have found a better editor because at times the misuse of vocabulary, tense, etc. made the text hard to read.

Nemesis by Philip Roth*** This is one of those minor famous novels I had always intended to read. I was disappointed. It is set during the polio epidemic in the middle of last century and tells the story of a group of people from a small town caught up in the situation. The main focus is on a young teacher who survives but spends the rest of his life suffering the effects of survivor guilt. I found the story long-winded and repetitive and got impatient with the amount of introspection. The story was sad, and had, I think, lessons for our pandemic, but was not, in my opinion, worth all the hype attached to this author.

The Ice Monster by David Walliams*** This is a children’s book but I was disappointed. A great deal of the humour (often what is collectively described as ‘toilet humour’) is directed at a particular age group, probably roughly 9-13. The reading level of the text certainly suggests they are the target group. However, a lot of the humour seems forced, and as though the author has one eye on the parents/teachers who might be reading the book alongside the child, hoping to make them either snigger or express shock. The story itself would, I think, be better suited to a slightly younger age group but in that case the actual telling is too long. The ice monster of the title is a frozen mammoth, and there is an attempt to suggest some serious research but this sits oddly with the general tone of the book. Altogether a very mixed up offering but worth skimming if you think any children in your life might enjoy it.

I made the picture as a social media icon. It’s a heavily Photoshopped version of a birthday card that only gave the publisher and not the artist. The original was on the back of the card, not as a main picture so it was about icon size anyway. Enlarging it for use here has made it a bit fuzzy.

I’ve decided to split my reviews so that I can manage a few more in depth reports on each section without getting overwhelmed. So this year there’ll be a number of monthly review posts instead of one main one, and an occasional longer critique. I’ll start by looking back at film and TV I watched in December 2020.

As usual in December, I watched quite a lot! Very little of it was typical holiday viewing. A lot of it was extremely good.

First the excellent:

Nordic Murders 1 and 2*****This, for Brits, should still be available to stream. It was shown on More4 and I understand there are to be more episodes. Each is film length and follows a different murder inquiry but the family dynamics between the main characters steal the show. It is set on Usedom, a German island in the Baltic, near the Polish border, and some of the action takes place in Poland, involving the Polish police. I was really hooked by the overarcing plot and an extra pleasure came from knowing the area.

Tamara Drewe ***** A group of writers at a retreat deep in the Dorset countryside are gradually drawn into the events in a village that end in death and chaos. The acting is brilliant and the twists and turns of the plot are never predictable. As you’ll gather from the five stars,, I loved it.

The Wrong Trousers***** A re-watch. Surely everybody has to love Wallace and Gromit? I find the ‘claymation’ much more immediately satisfying than most ‘funny’ cartoons. I could watch the whole series all day, admiring the technical way the models are manipulated (Gromit’s expressions are wonderful) and enjoying the understated Brit humour.

The Goes Wrong Show: The Nativity***** Probably still available on BBC iPlayer. I don’t always laugh at this series which I think tries too hard and therefore often fails, but The Nativity was wonderful and I never stopped giggling. I think it was so funny because I know all about school and church nativity plays. (One of my favourite Christmas films is Flint Street Nativity.)

Britain’s Most Historical Towns: Manchester (Alice Roberts)***** The historian explored the history of Manchester and of course we watched – we live in Greater Manchester after all. Alice Roberts is always worth listening to, and gives us a broad sweep of history while at the same time concentrating on a wealth of details that bring a place to life. Shown on Channel 4 and probably still available.

Freddie Mercury: a Christmas Story***** I’ve seen a number of biopics etc. about Freddie and Queen. This was a particularly good one.

Billy Elliot***** Another rewatch. I love this film. For anyone who doesn’t know it’s the story of a young boy in the north east of England who decides, almost accidentally, to learn ballet, much to the initial horror of his family. He eventually becomes a principle ballet dancer and the film follows his progress.

Knives Out ***** Daniel Craig stars in this quirky detective story set in America. Although I like Craig and his acting is good, the only flaw I would point to in this film is his accent. I suppose it’s meant to be Southern American but let’s face it, he’s Brit, and it doesn’t quite come off. Through various perspectives and a number of flashbacks which may or may not be recounted by unreliable narrators, Craig, as a private detective, gets to the bottom of a case the police are unable to solve. Worth watching.

I also thoroughly enjoyed a couple of concerts on YouTube – the Hallé Christmas Concert ****** and the Virtual Carol Concert – Online Carol Concert – LordsTaverners.org. ****** These were both delightful, but we also started watching a carol concert filmed in Peak Cavern in our local Peak District and gave up. It was filmed before the pandemic and seemed somehow unreal. Also, the music was excellent (a brass band from our area) but the soloists were too loud and not to our taste. I’m not sure why I wanted a more ‘distanced’ performance but I did. It was the only thing I abandoned in my December viewing.

The good.

The Shape of Water**** A deaf cleaner working in a research facility realises that an alien is being abused by the people investigating him. Gradually, with help from some of the scientists, she gains the alien’s trust, then his love. It’s an interesting idea and has an unlikely but romantic ending. The acting is excellent and the direction is tight, making sure the story is gripping.

Return of the Black Death: Secret History**** Another More4 production that looked at the history of the Black Death in the middle ages, the mid-seventeenth century ‘plague’ in London, and the implications for our current situation. Fascinating. I knew most of the historical information but it is always good to see links made and explored, and to set the present day in context.

Princess Alice: The Royals’ Greatest Secret**** This was on Channel 5 and was a biography of Alice, mother of the Duke of Edinburgh and therefore mother-in-law to the queen. She was a very interesting person in her own right and it was good to get more information about her as well as throwing light on Prince Philip’s childhood, young adulthood and marriage.

The World’s End**** This was a re-watch and in fact it might be the third time I’ve seen it. It’s a film by the team that brought us Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, etc. and it has moments of hilarity followed by moments of terror but I have always thought the ending was contrived and less than stellar. The acting is, of course, as you’d expect, superb.

The Clown **** This Christmas offering for children is based on the book and drawings, by Quentin Blake. As you’d expect, the drawings are excellent and the story is quite nice but somehow doesn’t reach the heights of The Snowman or The Gruffalo. A toy clown is thrown out in the trash and escapes. He then decides to rescue his fellow toys who are all waiting to be collected by the bin men.

The watchable if there’s nothing else on

The Valhalla Murders*** This was billed as the new Scandi-noir and was set in Iceland. It wasn’t well filmed, and there were too many incidents where the investigating team put themselves in harm’s way by e.g. entering dangerous premises alone at night. The investigators themselves clearly had severe family problems but these were never properly explained or resolved, just used to add to the atmosphere. The scenery was interesting, though somewhat black and white (Iceland in winter) and the acting was better than the script or the direction.

Happy Feet*** I love penguins but I’m not sure a full length animation film is quite to my taste. I almost fell asleep. The film naturally lacks colour, being about a black and white bird in a mostly white landscape, and there is a focus on the way penguins do in fact live, so the whole thing never really decided whether it was story about a lovable penguin, an animated attempt to ‘sell’ the idea of conservation, or a documentary in black and white. I was tired, but even so… I really felt I’d wasted a couple of hours.