My first thought was that the queen of crime could not have ended her novel as the BBC has its adaption -- 'adaption' in this instance being very broadly defined indeed. Yet the mini-series still makes for rewarding viewing right up until the re-written final chapter. That's when the wheels fall off with a thud

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 A young wife is like a pretty bird—you have to keep her in a cage.                                            —Hasidic saying Once a year, in Brooklyn, New York, on Israeli Independence Day, members of the Satmar Hasidic Jewish sect protest and march in the streets, carrying signs that read, “Destroy Israel”. The Satmars are firmly opposed to Zionism […]

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Michael Portillo's 'Great Australian Railway Journeys', which sees him retrace George Bradshaw’s nineteenth-century journey through an emerging nation, is a delight, even for those who don't share the peculiar passion in this age of jetliners for getting there by train

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I Said Left, at the Fork, Robert—LEFT! Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one more travelled by, and that has made no difference whatsoever. Joe Dolce Numerology Warning for Les Murray LES can also refer to: 1. Lake-Effect Snow 2. Large Eddy Simulation 3. Leave and Earnings Statement (a monthly […]

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Royal Night Out Under Augustan protection, of absolute darkness, bare-arsed rain once again cavorts, drunk and uninhibited. Hours later, hungover, and embarrassed, after a long night’s revelry, naked raindrops quickly slip out of wet garments, for Victorian dawn. Joe Dolce   Miss Ohio Dummy Mackenzie Bart, 22, and her ventriloquist doll, Roxy, won Miss Ohio […]

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Courage is being scared to death … and saddling up anyway.                                                    —John Wayne From the 1930s to the 1960s, the western was the most popular Hollywood movie genre. At its high point, in the 1950s, westerns outnumbered all other genres combined. Stagecoach, by John Ford, was the biggest hit of 1939, and made John […]

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Ignore the naysayers. The inspiring story of how Michelle Payne won the Melbourne Cup on 100-1 shot Prince of Penzance is likely destined, in the tradition of 'Phar Lap', to become an Australian classic

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Dead Mother Dead mother is a doll, with a doll’s face, left neatly unwrapped, in the creamy quilted case. Someone has positioned a hair of silver chain, and clasped it, across her fist, but she can’t really grasp it. The calligrapher has stitched Going Home, in white silk, and I Love You Grandma welts from […]

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'History seen through a half-open door' is the way writer Stephen Poliakoff describes his account of the little known and less remembered Prince John, autistic son of George V, who died in 1919. It's also a label that might well be applied to 'Summer of Rockets', a six-part BBC mini-series of twists and intrigue set in the UK of the Cold War

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Brokenheart Singing in her song she died. —Tennyson Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Brokenheart Syndrome. Not blockage. Heart stunned by adrenaline. Left ventricle balloons out. Named for resemblance to Japanese octopus-trap. Chest pains, shortness of breath, often mistaken for attack. Death rare. Reversible. Almost exclusive domain of women, at 90%— Little Ann, in Where the Ferns Grow, Lady […]

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