Review 7: A Letter to Momo

When I was little, one of my favourite films was a 30 minute animated adaptation of John Burningham’s beautiful children’s book Granpa. We never had an official copy, just the one Mum and Dad had taped off the tv. It shared space with Disney’s Robin Hood and was cut with bonkers 90’s adverts and grainy …

Review 6: ‘Born To Run’ by Christopher McDougall

According to Christopher McDougall and his book Born to Run: The Hidden Tribe, the Ultra Runners, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, I was born to run.  Well, according Christopher McDougall, a tribe of maverick scientists and mathematicians and the small but hardcore community of ultra runners.  Also, when I say "I", what I …

Review 5: The Deer Hunter

Two men sit across from each other at a square table in what must be one of the seediest dive bars Vietnam has to offer.  They have red headbands tied about their brows and they are clearly squaring off against one another in a brutal conflict.  "Six chances!" the referee calls in Vietnamese, explaining the …

Review 3: ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt

When my sister recommended The Secret History as a good starter book for Review Thirty-Six I initially had no idea that it was a) so venerable and well respected (venerable probably isn't the right word here, but it's certainly older than I was expecting it to be) and b) it's absolutely flipping everywhere!  Seriously, over the last …

Review 2: ‘Tusk’ by Fleetwood Mac

So... one thing has become very apparent while I've been attempting to talk about music in a critical manner.  I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing!  Well, that and I have genuinely found it quite hard to just sit and listen to a full album. That attention span my loving parents spent a good …

Review 1: Citizen Kane

Okay, Review No. 1, let's go! As an old man dies surrounded the decaying grandeur of deserted his home, he utters a single word: "Rosebud". This man, we are told through a newsreel documentary, was Charles Foster Kane, a former newspaper tycoon with a media empire that once spanned the entirety of the United States.  …