BBC – Page 2 – Cannonball Read 17

Jean Brash is my spirit animal

Mistress of the Just Land by David Ashton

February 4, 2019 by Chris Leave a Comment

One of the reasons that I loved the Mclevy series on the BBC radio was Siobhan Redmond’s portrayal of Jean Brash, mistress of the best bawdy house in Edinburgh (actually most likely the world). This book, written by the BBC series’ creator/writer David Ashton, takes place before the close of the series and focuses mainly on Jean Brash solving a crime that occurred in her business. She is not happy about this. Hannah Semple, of course, is Watson to Brash’s Sherlock. Mclevy and Mulholland make […]

an exercise in lying to liars

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

January 11, 2019 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

What began as a slow and cold (le Carré-esque) waiting game grew into a white hot flash of deceit, anxiety, and dangerous thrills. I cannot claim to know the full horrors and trials of World War II- nor can I draw a true comparison between that dark time and the present, but the world of this book is a different world from our current version. One constant remains: the truth is subjective. In 1940 a young woman is recruited into the fold of MI5. Europe […]

Seeing comes before words.

January 15, 2018 by tillie 2 Comments

I picked up this book for a multitude of reasons. Mainly because the cover was brilliant, the physical size of the book is perfect for twisting in your hands and it’s beautiful enough that I wanted to be seen with it. The first page is remarkable. It starts with one sentence “Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it speaks.” And then whitespace. I’m such a sucker for whitespace. This book should have had more whitespace. It’s set in a bold Univers […]

Old Story, New Voices

November 15, 2016 by Ale Leave a Comment

Faintingviolet already did a great review of this glorious audio book, but I’ll try to give it justice as well. While abridged, this amazing full cast rendition of “The Hobbit” was a thoroughly enjoyable listen, and I highly recommend it. It’s complete with a musical score, sound effects, and Bilbo breaking the fourth wall to talk directly to the audience as if he’s recounting his tale right out of his “there and back again” memoir. I thought it was a neat artistic touch that Bilbo […]

Douglas Adams + Dirk Maggs – be still my beating heart

April 13, 2016 by Jak 3 Comments

I have a love affair with the work of Douglas Adams. Starting from a young age, when my elder brother brought home some books with covers that linked up to make a bigger picture (mind blown!). He has a turn of phrase that I find relentlessly hilarious. Dirk Maggs produces radio dramatisations for BBC radio, something I discovered a couple of years ago, when Good Omens (a top 10 book for me) was on the radio at Christmastime. (Spoiler: it was phenomenal.) So, imagine my joy when I found a […]

Magic as Science. And a way to get the ladies.

June 2, 2015 by cheerbrarian 2 Comments

Someone suggested we read this as a book club selection but figured “they were the last person on Earth to not have read it” but I was apparently living under a rock as I hadn’t even heard of Clarke’s magical read. With the pending BBC miniseries I was eager to see what all the buzz was about and was not disappointed. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell are two magicians in England in the 1800s who are destined to bring magic back to England, the premise […]

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