Litopia After Dark - Mummy Stole My Fingers

Another week, another podcast ;)

Recorded live and uncensored, LITOPIA AFTER DARK is a wide-ranging look at what’s new, hot or not in the worlds of writing, publishing, media and culture. Again, we can be found live on UStream at 8pm (GMT) on Friday evenings and there’s an opportunity watch the Podcast being made and make comments during the program. In this week’s packed show we will be discussing Literary Prizes. AL Kennedy has just been awarded the (British) Costa Prize and yet the book is a bleak read, not universally appealing. We discuss whether the literary prize system is fatally flawed from the outset. Also - Misery Lit, the relatively new best-sellers of the publishing industry. What are the appeal of these harrowing, shocking memoirs? And why do people love them? The panel discuss the dangers of life story accounts spiraling out of control and the race to be the most unpleasant yet. This week’s guests are Dave Bartram, Beverley Gray, Richard Howse, Donna Ballman and Eve Harvey.

Cloverfield & No Country For Old Men

It's not often that I do a double-whammy at the cinema, but yesterday I took the hit and kind of got the order wrong, choosing the fast-paced Cloverfield before the slow-burning and understated No Country.

Best to do them t'other way round, I think now. So, last first: No Country was good. Slower than the book. But still very good. Worthy, indeed, of anyone who likes a character movie that doesn't explain overtly the decisions a character makes.

Cloverfield on the other hand, is Blair Witch meets War of the Worlds meets Godzilla. It's a B-movie, a popcorn movie, rarely any sense that anyone knows what's going on, but absolutely brilliant. It's scary, it's dizzy-handycam work and you can't help being sucked in.

Anyhoo, was hoping to get Juno in too, and write a lot more here, but seeing as it's holiday time in exactly one hour, I've got to get ready.