Asterix in Lusitania

The latest Asterix book and our Gaulish heroes finally visit Portugal. This occurs because of a request from a man called Randomaxess from Lusitania (who had a small unnamed appearance in the Mansions of the Gods). His friend Umaminess, who produces garam fish sauce which Julius Caesar likes, has been wrongly thrown in prison after being accused of trying to poison JC.

Asterix and Obelix head to Lusitania, a land of melancholy and (to Obelix's horror) fermented fish. Getting Umaminess out of prison is easy but Asterix also wants to prove his innocence so he will no longer be persecuted. The real poisoner is an ambitious Roman governor. 

This is a fine Asterix romp, the best books are the ones where he and Obelix visit another land, so the piss can be ruthlessly taken. Naturally this book is packed full of regionally appropriate puns and cameos, including Ronaldo of course!

Black and blue

Merry Christmas everyone, i hope those who celebrate it got some nice presents or at least some cheer. One of my presents was a TWSBI fountain pen. Now, i received one last year as well and i have been happily writing with it ever since. Practicing my handwriting is something i am quite keen on, it has definitely improved over the last decade. Although, my writing style is quite individual...

However, the pen only wrote in black ink. I wanted to write in blue as well, so the easiest thing is just to ask for another TWSBI pen! So, i now have two and can write in either black or blue as the mood takes. Maybe next year i'll ask for a third and get some red ink...

Analogue in a digital age

These days all of the music i listen to is in a digital format. I buy mp3s from Bandcamp (mostly), i do not use any of the streaming sites as i regard them as evil. Don't rip off artists, unless it is Gary Glitter or something. However, in the past i used to buy and listen to a lot of music on a variety of physical, and analogue, formats.

This included compact discs of course, i used to have hundreds of them. I still have quite a few though never listen to any of them, and i'm not sure if i still have a player. Going back further, the first music i ever bought was on cassette format, and of course i used to make compilation tapes on TDK90s to play on my Dad's car stereo.

I miss cassette tapes, and i actually have a trio of recent albums released on the format which i haven't got around to listening to yet, because i didn't have a decent player. That has changed with the arrival of this neat little music box which i have just treated myself to. It also has a radio tuner, and can even play mp3s via USB or SD card, though i got it to play tapes and a retro thrill it is. I have the latest album by my current favourite artist Yota on order. I have it as mp3 already of course but getting it on cassette will be fun.

Death in White Pyjamas

Death in white pyjamas by John Bude is a crime novel involving that most treacherous of worlds, that being the one of the theatre!

A group of actors are gathered at the estate of their rich backer to prepare before their next play. Crimes then begin to occur, first the theft of some money then finally the theatre set designer is found dead in a lake in her white pyjamas.

The story is a little slow to get going, and has a lot of characters who need to be established. This doesn't help with the pacing early on but once the story is up and running, and the police detective gets to work, it becomes a fine murder mystery.

Star Wars Omnibus - A Long Time Ago 1

Over the last few weeks and months i have reread my sole surviving Marvel Star Wars comic from the early 1980s a few times and also bought another one on eBay. I did ask myself though, at the time, if these comics had been republished in collected form, and indeed they have so instead of wasting 5 pounds on a faded tatty comic why not spend just twice that on a big thick (oo-er) volume?

This collection begins with the Marvel comic adaptation of the first Star Wars film of course, but interesting as that is i was more eager to see  how they continued the storyline after the destruction of the Death Star, while waiting to adapt Empire Strikes Back a few years down the line. To be honest the original stories do not begin that well...

The first story is a retelling of the Magnificent Seven in all but name (at least that is kind of apt considering the Kurosawa influence on Star Wars in general of course) with Han Solo assembling a motley crew of mercenaries to fight off some alien hoards to defend some poor villagers. All seems fine though the story is very unlike Star Wars, apart from Solo and Chewie all the characters seem rather Marvel comic generic and it just doesn't feel like Star Wars...

Things begin to improve later on when Darth Vader makes a reappearance and the Empire in general becomes the focus for the storyline, an interesting new universe begins to emerge involving the Empire's allies called the House of Tagge.

Of course the problem for the comic's creators was that they only had the first film to play with for background, nowadays there is a much more expanded universe. Thus, some events and characterizations in these stories are a bit off and the later films do contradict some of the events which take place here (yes Luke and Leia get some lovey dovey action...)

Despite these niggles overall these are a great set of comics and well worth the money.

Barking to Southend

Two separate railway lines were built from London out to Southend-on-Sea in Essex, which became a popular seaside resort, and both are still busy routes today. This book by Dr Edwin Course concentrates on the former London, Tilbury & Southend Railway which opened in through to Southend in 1856 before continuing further east. 

Part of the route in east London runs alongside the District and Hammersmith & City Lines of the London Underground such as at Barking. Indeed, in the first half of the twentieth century, the District Line ran through to Southend during the Summer!

Once you get to Southend then you can sample the delights of the longest pleasure pier in the world. So long indeed that it has it's own railway! You can also stop off at Leigh-on-Sea on the way and see one of the previous generation Southend Pier Railway cars in a cafe!

An excellent book on an interesting railway line.

Barking

Former Southend Pier Railway car in Leigh-on-Sea

Southend Central

Southend Pier Railway

Rendezvous - South Atlantic

Douglas Reeman was one of my favourite authors when i was younger, although his tales of naval combat all tended to be fairly similar. The main character would be a man broken by past horrors and failure, he would be given a new chance at redemption but knowing that it was probably his last chance.

He would meet a woman, fall in love. Come into conflict with a superior officer or someone higher up in society and face losing everything, including the girl in the final action set piece.

Well that basically is the plot of this excellent story which features a captain given command of an armed merchant ship. Can Commander Lindsay get his battered old ship and crew of misfits into shape before their ultimate test?

Many Reeman stories had this kind of story outline, but this one was one of the best.

The Empire of a Thousand Planets

This is book 2 in the Valerian and Laureline series, they being a couple of chilled dudes from the future who work for the Spatio-Temporal Service of Earth. They travel through space and time having various adventures. 

I enjoyed the first book in the series and this one is pretty good too. Written in the early 1970s, it has a kind of hippie sci-fi feel to it (think Dark Star) rather than the techno-fascist sci-fi horror that came later (think... well most other things).

Compared to the first book there is maybe a little less out-and-out adventure and action but a more involved storyline. The first book also took place on a ruined future (for us, past for them) Earth while this takes place in a remote corner of the galaxy. It's all quite implausible, our heroes have amazing abilities and no doubt a lot of luck but also very enjoyable.

Great play is made by the publishers on the similarities between Valerian & Laureline and the later Star Wars epics of George Lucas. Did Lucas get some "inspiration" from this? Who knows, it could all be a co-incidence but there do seem to be quite a lot of co-incidences...

Last will and testament

One of Elizabeth Ferrars' most enjoyable series were the books featuring the unusual couple of Virginia and Felix, an estranged married couple who repeatedly are drawn back together to solve murders!

This is the first book in the series. Virginia and Felix get involved in a case of will shenanigans for an old lady who died broke, and yet her will seems to result a number of murders...

Not a huge amount of detective work takes place in this story but it is an enjoyable read nonetheless and a good crime story. The story has a complicated plot as Virginia and Felix endeavour to discover which of the story's small ensemble is behind the crimes. 

A good start to an unusual but recommended series of books.

Look-in Television Annual 1974

Look-in was a pop culture magazine aimed at teenagers which ran for many years, this was the 1974 annual. The annual is a fascinating look at what the "youth" were into (or maybe supposed to be into) back then, and also what was considered cool. Yes, there is a photo of Gary Glitter on page 8.

So, what was cool in 1974? Bless This House was a popular sit-com at the time, and gets a comic strip here. The artist only seems to have had a vague notion of what Sid James looked like though. Kung Fu, Doctor At Sea and Black Beauty are among the other TV series featured.

There are a lot of pop stars too, some of whom haven't been cancelled in recent years for their actions in the 1970s plus some quizzes and jokes. A pleasant look into what kids were into back then, in an age way before social media. 

Reading to Guildford

The North Downs Line stretches from Reading to Redhill, via Guildford which can be considered the mid-point of the line. An interesting line as well which i have travelled up and down many times. So interesting indeed that my fifth book will be on this very line but more on that at a (much) later date.

This Middleton Press volume by Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith covers the line to Guildford and the various interesting stations along it, some with a military connection like Crowthorne and Sandhurst. Period maps and photography are paired with the usual informative text.

Another great Middleton Press volume. My book on the same line (probably due out in 2028) has a lot to live up to!

Reading

Wokingham

Farnborough North

Guildford

Flight 714

In this, the penultimate completed Tintin story, Tintin and his companions (Snowy, Haddock and Calculus) end up on a private jet which is hijacked and landed on a remote island in the West Pacific by a group of hoodlums. These men are intent on relieving one of the world's richest men (the superbly arrogant and vile Carreidas) of some of his vast fortune. However, the island which are they landed on has more secrets than even the bad guys banked on though...

Flight 714 is a dark story, though not without much of the humour that you often get with later Tintin and its ensemble cast, it is even a bit post-modern at times with quite a few recurring jokes from earlier in the series. The violence is rawer, less comical than the early Tintin days but i find the emotions which that brings up helps make Flight 714 a very engaging read.

Flight 714 has been criticised though for its deus ex machina resolution as it involves extraterrestrials. However. i have no problem with this, the story was written at a time when the ancient astronauts theory as popularised by Erich Von Daniken was very popular, and alien abductions and sightings were very common. This book really caught the late 60s zeitgeist, but in subsequent years Von Daniken's ideas have become discredited. This doesn't detract from the excitement such fantastic ideas cause if they were true, nor indeed the quality of Flight 714.

It has some of the best examples of artwork in any Tintin story, some of the scenes such as the jet landing, can only be described as cinematic and breathtaking. The story is not perfect though, some of the small universe syndrome which Tintin suffers from crops up again, as the same bad guys we've seen quite a few times already in early books return again. The story also seems to finish fairly abruptly. These are only minor points, while it might be less accessible than some earlier Tintin books, Flight 714 is truly a good story.

The Twenties

I have always found the decade of 1920s very interesting, it is amazing to think now we that are 100 years later though the 2020s is not as bright or fun as the 1920s, it seems to lack flappers or cool jazz anyway.

Alan Jenkin's book covers the decade which started with the West beginning to recover from the First World War and ended with the seeds sown for the next one History, society and popular culture are all covered with a plethora of period photographs and illustrations.

I would have liked to see a bit more on the silver screen perhaps but this book is a general history and not a movie one. Of course it is better to watch 1920s films rather than just read about them. The Bishop Murder Case, The Unholy Night and The Voice of the City are three films i recommend you tracking down on YouTube. 

Interestingly, the last of those three films was the one Al Capone, that icon of the 1920s, was watching when he was arrested!

Woking to Alton

The line from Woking to Alton was once part of an alternative main line route to the south coast, but nowadays is a commuter line that passes through nice scenery before ending in north eastern Hampshire. 

We start at Woking, a busy transport hub in Surrey and pass through beautiful Surrey and Hampshire countryside, visiting towns and villages like Aldershot, Bentley and Farnham before arriving at Alton.

The line does continue here for a while as part of the preserved Watercress Line but that is another story. This is another interesting volume in Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith's series on country railway routes. 

As usual the book includes period maps and photographs plus "modern day" photographs (though these are from the late 1980s when this book was published). Some of my more up-to-date photographs can be seen below.

Aldershot

Bentley

Farnham

Alton

The Leavenworth Case

The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green is a late 19th century crime story set in New York. 

This was a popular story in it's time and was said to have been Stanley Baldwin's favourite story. The story revolves around the murder of a rich merchant (Leavenworth). Suspicion falls upon his two nieces and a mysterious man. An investigator and a lawyer tackle the case.

Quite why this story was so popular is the true mystery (sorry Mr Baldwin!) I found the story a bit slow and tedious though it is undeniably pretty well written, but by the time you find out who was the murderer you may have largely lost interest. 

The story also suffers from a bit of over the top melodrama like many Victorian novels. Still maybe Mr Baldwin liked a bit of melodrama, he was a politician after all!

Illustrated Tales of Derbyshire

I like a bit of local folklore me. This interesting book by David Paul takes us on a tour around Derbyshire (a county i am very fond of) and recounts some of the folklore at various spots around the county. The folklore includes tales of witches, stories of old mysteries and crimes and even an odd marriage. 

The stories are accompanied by photographs taken by the author of the various locations. A lovely book that includes well known Derbyshire towns like Bakewell and Chesterfield and also more obscure and little known villages too.

I do enjoy books like this, i have a number of similar books in my collection. The only thing this book could do with is a map of the locations included but that is a minor criticism.

Distressed Damsels & Masked Marauders

The movie serial was a staple of cinema until the 1950s. Weekly episodes which ended on a cliffhanger to help draw the audience back next week to see how the hero managed to survive the seemingly impossible odds. This excellent book by Ed Hulse covers the serial from it's beginnings in the 1910s to the end of the silent era.

The influences and origins of the serial are also discussed, i found this most interesting. I'd never heard of the 10-20-30 melodramas popular on stage in the 19th century before and how they influenced the early serial. 

Much of the book is taken with a discussion of what happened in various serials. Many now lost, it is interesting that Charlie Chan first made his on-screen appearance in a late 1920s serial. Many more films were to follow in the following decades.

I enjoyed this book immensely, it is well illustrated with poster, lobby cards and on-set photographs from dozens of silent movie serials. A great book to introduce you to the serial, many of which can be seen on-line these days.

I reviewed a few silent movie serials on my old movie review blog. These include The Mystery Airmen and The Son of Tarzan.

The Chinese War Machine

Considering the amount of change, and the rapid improvement, of the armed forces of the People's Republic of China even in the last ten years, this Salamander book from 1979 is incredibly out of date. 

However, the last actual war the People's Liberation Army took place in was around the time this book was published (against Vietnam, and China didn't do very well!)

This is an enjoyable period piece. China was building a lot of weapons back then too though they were largely copies of already ageing and often obsolete Soviet types instead of the weapons they build today which are as good as (and who knows maybe in some ways superior) to the West's.

Not much detailed in this book therefore will be relevant to today. However, if you have a nostalgia for Soviet era weapons and Cold War armies then this look across the Bamboo Curtain is very enjoyable.

The Golden Age of DC Comics - 365 Days

If you are not familiar with the 365 Days volumes, they had an entry for every day of the year (natch) on a specific subject, the daily subject often having a tie in with what the relevant date is.

The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days is on DC comics, home of the iconic Superman, Batman and a galaxy of other heroes, this book covers DC from its pre-costumed hero days (when it literally was Detective Comics) to the post-war when westerns and sci-fi periodically knocked the men (and women) in tights off their perches.

Most people will have heard of the main characters like Superman and Batman of course and they feature heavily here, though what is particularly enjoyable are some of the lesser-known and nowadays pretty much forgotten heroes like Air Wave, who apparently combated villains by roller-skating along telegraph wires and Fatman, who wore a lampshade as his mask. 

To be honest i think some of these guys would make for better films than some of the recent subjects like the Green Lantern (but considering the rate of which Hollywood is plundering the comic universe i suspect films about Air Wave and the like are probably only a few years off).

In fact that is the only criticism of this excellent volume, i wish there was an easy way to read the rest of some of the obscure stories featured in here! Its a chunky volume you will be dipping into all the time, a superb piece of work!