2022 Review

In spite of the unending calamity of the 2020s, films, books and television have still kept me going throughout 2022. Here are my highlights. Film Throughout the period of December 2021 to December 2022, I’ve watched just over 270 films. In general, I’ve focussed on my usual deep dive into the handful of national cinemas that I’m really invested in, though this year has seen … Continue reading 2022 Review

Nettles (Influx Press)

For a long time, the only thing I ever had nightmares about was secondary school. The nightmares would vary in tone and scenario but often had several reoccurring themes. They would include the corridors of the school, the feeling of being stuck within the walls of the building and the rising embarrassment of failure in front of peers. No pleasure was greater than feeling that … Continue reading Nettles (Influx Press)

Nettles (2022, Influx Press) – Preview

I was in a cafe in the Alésia area of Paris in 2017 trading horror stories about school days with the writer Édouard Louis when the novel potential of some of my own childhood memories became apparent. I had met Édouard through a mutual producer and we were discussing film projects that were never to materialise. Having read The End of Eddy and loved it, … Continue reading Nettles (2022, Influx Press) – Preview

Beginnings: Jean Simmons

This article was originally commissioned as part of an ongoing series for Little White Lies. As the photograph was damaged by rain, and not wanting to revisit to re-do the photograph, the article is published here. Further installments of the column are ongoing and can be read here. One of the great screen presences of cinema’s Golden Age, Jean Simmons forged a strong career on … Continue reading Beginnings: Jean Simmons

Trailer: Factory (Derek Raymond) – LWT, 1976

The London of my mind’s eye is still shabby and industrial. It is not built on the reality of its modern identity but from its documentation and portrayal in older books, television and film, even more so than ever due to lockdown. This London is not one filled with looming, luxury high-rises like the horrors in Nine Elms, nor is it the city that turned … Continue reading Trailer: Factory (Derek Raymond) – LWT, 1976

How Pale The Winter Has Made Us (Influx Press)

How Pale The Winter Has Made Us is my third book and was released on the 13th February. This means that, as of today, it has been out for three months. With a lot of the publicity and events collapsing around the book due to the ongoing Coronaviris situation, I thought I’d collate all of the things that have managed to happen surrounding the book … Continue reading How Pale The Winter Has Made Us (Influx Press)

2019 Review

Best of Film Un Singe En Hiver (1962) – Henri Verneuil Last Train From Gun Hill (1959) – John Sturges Histoire De Marie Et Julien (2003) – Jacques Rivette Paper Moon (1973) – Peter Bogdanovich Peppermint Soda (1977) – Diane Kurys Bad Day At Black Rock (1955) – John Sturges Montparnasse 19 (1958) – Jacques Becker Cadaveri Eccellenti (1976) – Francesco Rosi Maigret Et l’Affaire … Continue reading 2019 Review

Short Film – Ness (Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood)

I’ve very happy to say that, after five years since the very first frame was shot, the film adaptation of Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood’s Ness is finally finished. Started before the book was even written, the project has been on and off since late 2014 when first gaining permission to visit the famous site of Orford Ness; once a semi-fictionalised place in my mind’s … Continue reading Short Film – Ness (Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood)