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The Trial of Lotta Rae
The Trial of Lotta Rae
Siobhan MacGowan | 2022 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I read this beautifully written book on The Pigeonhole, and I’m so glad that I didn’t miss the opportunity.

The Trial of Lotta Ready Siobhan MacGowan is a story about the legal trial, and subsequent tribulations of a working class girl. Raped at 15 by a wealthy man, Lotta’s Mam and Pap support her in the battle to bring him to justice. But it all goes terribly wrong and before long, Lotta finds herself alone, on the street and trying to live under everyones radar. She is, however, often recognised from the newspaper articles, where they printed all of the lies from the trial.

This is a story of love and loss, betrayal and retribution, privilege and misogyny, with a background of the Suffragette movement and the First World War.
The narrator is, without wanting to give too much away, very interesting - and much more hard hitting because of that choice.

It’s a stunning book and highly recommended.
  
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ClareR (6106 KP) rated The Imposter in Books

Mar 7, 2023  
The Imposter
The Imposter
Anna Wharton | 2021 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Obsession, loneliness and lies. What a hand-rubbing trio of themes they are!

Newspaper archivist Chloe is the sole carer of her grandmother who has dementia. She’s trying to fend off social services to keep her Nan at home - she’s all she has, after all.

It’s no surprise to me that Chloe develops an obsession with a past case that she comes across whilst digitalising old articles. Angela Kyle went missing as a 4 year old in 1980. Chloe tracks down the child’s parents, discovers they need a lodger, and gets the room when Nan has been moved into a home.

This is a sad book. Chloe’s nan’s dementia; Angela’s parents living with their loss and not knowing what happened to their child; Chloe’s obsession and loneliness. These are all strong, well-thought out characters - and it’s so tense! I felt like I needed to come up regularly for air!

It’s emotional, and the ending is absolutely plausible - it’s a cracking story!!
  
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David McK (3728 KP) rated A Man on the Inside in TV

Dec 15, 2024 (Updated Dec 15, 2024)  
A Man on the Inside
A Man on the Inside
2024 | Comedy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
This, I felt, is in many ways a spiritual successor to 'The Good Place', with many of the cast from that earlier show appearing in this (mainly in bit parts).

Here, Ted Danson plays a lonely widower who, following the death of his wife from Alzheimer's, seems to be drifting more and more away from having any meaning in life himself, and from his own daughter, until that daughter challenges him to find something to do with his time.

So he answers a newspaper ad, and is hired to infiltrate an OAP home, following the hiring of a Private Detective (who is too young to do so herself) to investigate the potential theft in said OAP.

And, of course, Charles finds himself connecting more and more with the residents and staff of the OAP, as well as with his daughter, as a result, in a 'feel good' series that still also has its share of sad moments ...
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) in Movies

Mar 3, 2018 (Updated Mar 3, 2018)  
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)
1961 | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
Weather Forecast says 'Sun Everywhere'
Apocalyptic British SF movie shows how this sort of thing should be done. Nuclear tests shift the Earth on its axis, send it closer to the sun: civilisation struggles to cope with the prospect of looming extinction. Story is told from the point of view of the journalists of the Daily Express (don't laugh, it was a newspaper back in the 60s).

Very similar in its downbeat tone to the Quatermass movies Val Guest had previously made for Hammer - no B-movie this, but a serious, hard-edged naturalistic drama. Personal story of romance between lead journo Edward Judd and met office secretary Janet Munro is woven into the main plot with considerable skill; scenes of devastated London are well-mounted. A bit dated in some of its attitudes, but its concerns with the disastrous effects of climate change and its political cynicism mean it still feels surprisingly relevant today. Much better than any of the Roland Emmerich movies which have arguably ripped it off.