Word for Word – Laurie Lisle

"This is a memoir about living a writing life - wanting to be a writer, becoming a writer, and being a writer - as acts of self-expression, self-assertion, and womanly survival." If I'm honest - and I usually am 😉 - I have very little idea of who Laurie Lisle is, which may not seem …

The Fabelmans (2022)

Meet the Fabelmans - a slightly sanitised, rose-tinted-glasses version of director Steven Spielberg's family and young life. We start with young Sammy encountering the spectacle of the cinema for the first time, and watch it develop into an obsession - largely sparked by a need for control over nightmares. The movie will show young Stev- …

Elvis (2022)

Elvis Presley. The 'King' of rock and roll. A very deserved soubriquet, he had talent and looks - and a tragic story. Definitely ripe for a huge blockbuster movie! My interest in this film was admittedly a little more Baz Luhrmann than the King himself; Elvis was before my time, really. But you can't argue …

Everything is OK – Debbie Tung

"For everyone who is going through a tough time. You are not alone. You matter. You are enough just as you are right now." A while ago I read the graphic novel, Book Love, by Debbie Tung. It's such an adorably sweet book, you never would have guessed that the author was struggling with anxiety and …

My Mess is a Bit of a Life – Georgia Pritchett

"Killing yourself is an intrinsically dramatic act." I must confess that I had no idea who Georgia Pritchett was before I picked up this book, but the title really resonated so I thought I'd give it a go. Turns out she's a script writer who's worked on shows like Veep, In the Thick of It, …

The Aeronauts (2019)

In 1862, the idea of meteorology - the science of weather - was a laughable thing (as opposed to 2019, when it's still largely laughable? Hmm). Scientist James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) is determined to prove otherwise, but to do so he needs the help of a hot air balloon pilot. In real life, this was …

Ford v Ferrari (2019)

This is the story of two companies in bitter rivalry: the handcrafted, race-dominating Ferrari, against the mass-produced, reliable but deeply 'unsexy' Ford. There's a personal rivalry, too, between Enzo Ferrari and Henry Ford II. But more than that it's the tale of two other men: Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), the first American to win the …

The Current War (2017)

It was the starry cast that attracted me to this, rather than another retelling of the fight between Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), which I thought I knew (enough) about. But this isn't that fight, or rather, Tesla is only a bit-player, and the real 'war' is between inventor Edison and …

As You Wish – Cary Elwes

"William Goldman once said about the movie business, 'Nobody knows anything.'" Along with many, many other people, The Princess Bride holds a special place in my heart. It's a sweet, funny, action-packed, generally just lovely movie. It's one of my go-to films when I need a pick me up. And who better to talk us …

First Man (2018)

First Man is a biopic of astronaut, Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling), detailing his time with NASA and becoming the first human to walk on another planetary body. It's at once a deeply personal story, and yet captures one of the most monumental human achievements of all time. There was nothing easy about the 'space race'. …