Adam Colclough (3 KP) rated Harry's Game in Books
Mar 6, 2018
For the most part thrillers are the literary equivalent of Danish pastry, enjoyable but not made to last. A few, and ‘Harry’s Game’ is one, are more substantial fare, food for the mind that may give you indigestion.
On one level it is a book in the tradition established by Frederick Forsythe, fiction played out as fact allowing the author to draw on his journalistic background. Seymour goes beyond this by creating characters who aren’t simply stock heroes and villains. Instead they are human beings engaged in a struggle that is squalid and futile rather than heroic and purposeful.
This combines to give a grimly believable picture of daily life in Northern Ireland at a time when a single word or action out of place could have deadly consequences. He also writes well about the machinations behind the scenes on both sides, with the British political and military establishment struggling to fight an undeclared war they don’t understand; and the IRA high command masking the brutality of their actions behind misty eyed romanticism.
Brutal, believable and still relevant more than forty years after it was first published this is a novel that is very much worth reading, even if doing so can be unsettling.
The Colour of Murder
10.0
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Book
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARTIN EDWARDS 'One of our most ingenious and stylish home-grown crime...
Fiction Historical Mystery Thriller
Norwegian Wood: Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2016
Book
THE BRITISH BOOK INDUSTRY AWARDS NON-FICTION BOOK THE OF YEAR 2016 "Every man looks at his wood-pile...
A Fire Sparkling
Book
After a crushing betrayal by the man she loves, Gillian Gibbons flees to her family home for a...
historical fiction women's fiction
The Silence of Scheherazade
10.0
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Book
Set in the ancient city of Smyrna, this powerful novel follows the intertwining fates of four...
Historical fiction Turkish Literary fiction War Cultural Colonialisation
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Body Stealers (Invasion of the Body Stealers) (1969) in Movies
Mar 16, 2019 (Updated Mar 16, 2019)
One of those films where you quickly become pleasantly surprised when something isn't cheesy, inept, or horribly inappropriate; the kind of movie which gives science fiction a bad name (fans of the genre will doubtless recognise the alien spaceship from a more prominent appearance in another film). Various fairly capable actors find themselves adrift in a sea of uproarious nonsense; Neil Connery proves once again that, limited though his range may be, big brother Sean got all the acting ability in the family. Kind of fun to watch if you like bad movies.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Avengers in TV
Mar 4, 2018 (Updated Mar 4, 2018)
Many of the early episodes are quite hard work now, but the two seasons where Macnee is paired with Diana Rigg are classic TV, and the sometimes-maligned final season with Linda Thorson also contains many neglected gems (the episode with the murderous clowns, for instance). Even when the show is not quite firing on all cylinders, there is always Patrick Macnee's inimitable performance as Steed to enjoy.
The Golden Child
Charles Saumarez Smith and Penelope Fitzgerald
Book
'The Golden Child', Penelope Fitzgerald's first work of fiction, is a classically plotted British...
Foreign Bodies
Book
Today, translated crime fiction is in vogue - but this was not always the case. A century before...
Doctor Who - Series 5 (New Season 5)
8.4
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TV Season
The fifth series of British science fiction television programme Doctor Who began on 3 April 2010...