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** WARNING — SPOILERS FOLLOW ** Borgen, the Danish West Wing ((C) All Media), has just finished its first series on BBC4, and it’s been a joy (notwithstanding the caveats I voiced a few weeks ago). And as the series has developed so have I detected more and more similarities with Shekhar Kapur’s 1998 film, Elizabeth. Really. Well, at least  [ Read More ]

For reasons that need not detain us now I spent part of this Saturday a la my childhood hero Mr Benn dressing up — in my case to become a gangster and have my photograph taken with my, erm, moll. I made two discoveries. First, I cannot handle even a prop gun with any degree of convincingly rugged machismo. I  [ Read More ]

The House of Silk: The New Sherlock Holmes Novel, Anthony Horowitz I hadn’t realised quite what a fan of Anthony Horowitz I am until I came to look at his back catalogue: he created Foyle’s War, perhaps the best of all original TV detective series, adapted many of the David Suchet Poirots, and co-wrote the darkly comic Murder Most Horrid.  [ Read More ]

Soldiers of Salamis (Soldados de Salamina), Javier Cercas The first book I read by Cercas (his most recent) was The Anatomy of a Moment, a factual work of historical interpretation. Soldiers of Salamis is a fictional work of historical imagination. The novel is authored by a fictional ‘Javier Cercas’, an alter ego who tells the story of the real Rafael  [ Read More ]

Fall of Giants, Ken Follett This is the first time in my ’100 words’ series when I’ve reviewed a book I started but failed to finish. That’s because normally it’s my fault, I’ve simply been distracted by the shiny-shiny novelty of the new. But this time I blame the author. It’s a shame because I loved Follett’s The Pillars of  [ Read More ]

Death Comes to Pemberley, P.D. James I really wanted to love this book. What could be better than the combination of an homage to Jane Austen’s biting Pride and Prejudice as penned by the magisterial crime writer PD James? And the thing is it’s not actually bad. The writing is Austen-esque, the murder mystery is intriguing, the ends are wrapped-up.  [ Read More ]

Reginald Hill, most famous as author of the Dalziel and Pascoe crime novels, died today. Whenever I mention I’m a huge fan of Hill’s, I feel I almost have to apologise for the television series which made his characters famous. For such an enormous talent, Hill was peculiarly ill-served by TV. Most disastrously, ITV attempted an incarnation with Hale and  [ Read More ]

So I’ve finally caught up with BBC4′s new Danish import, Borgen – which is to coalition tangled-web politics what The Killing was to grisly tangled-web murders. And it’s great. Really. I mean, the leader of the Moderates, Birgitte Nyborg, sparks a dose of ‘Cleggmania’ which actually works… she gains more seats, and forms a government. This is Lib Dem dreamland!  [ Read More ]

The Leopard (Il Gattopardo), Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa I read The Leopard before discovering it was Nick Clegg’s book choice for his desert island (honest)… which is probably as well because this is the story of a corpulent, indulgent prince (Don Fabrizio Corbera) who presides over a declining kingdom, recognising that he represents an old order incapable of initiating the  [ Read More ]

This post comes to you live from the X90 Oxford-London coach, marking the start of my commuting life. Today was my first day working as Development Director for the Education Endowment Foundation, the offices of which are in Millbank Tower, SW1. My partner began working in London last August, so we travel in together. Some people think we’re mad, and  [ Read More ]