Author: Sipu

A War Monkey Called Sue! (Further adventures on the Internet.)

Yesterday I read Charles Moore’s review of Stephen Spielberg’s latest film, War Horse. Having seen and thoroughly enjoyed the play, which I saw inLondon, 18 months ago, I read the review with some interest. Without going into details,Moore was less than enthusiastic, criticising Spielberg for the gratuitous sentimentality. What was perhaps more interesting, was the comment section, some of which dealt with aspects of the Great War and the vast tragedy attached to it. Continue reading “A War Monkey Called Sue! (Further adventures on the Internet.)”

Then die, Facebook!

Today is a red letter day for me in that I have finally managed to have my Facebook account deleted. Rather foolishly I signed up for it a couple of years ago as a result of pressure from family and friends. I seldom used it, but realised that others did and it was sometimes the only way to contact people. Then in April this year, my internet connection went down and I was forced to use an internet cafe. Continue reading “Then die, Facebook!”

What a load of bollocks!

I have just watched the film, ‘Black Swan’. What a completely crap, pretentious load of bollocks it was. That it won an Oscar for Natalie Portman baffles me. Except it didn’t, once I saw the names of the people involved in its making, at which point, I am afraid my worst tendencies came to the forefront. I am not a particular fan of Mel Gibson, especially following such films as Brave Heart and Patriot, but I think he and Charlie Sheen have a point.

All Hell Let Loose

I was reading a copy of the BBC History magazine the other day when I came across an article by Max Hastings. He has written a book about the Second World War called, ‘All Hell Let Loose’. He says he was asked how it was possible to write yet another book about that period in history. Surely it had been done to death. He counters by providing a number of facts and statistics that may surprise many. The book is written with ordinary people, soldiers and civilians, at the centre of events, rather than the big-name politicians and generals who usually occupy that ground. Continue reading “All Hell Let Loose”

I Am Fed Up!

I have had just about enough of theses endless cries of ‘racism’ that are being bandied around at every opportunity, not just in Britain, but around the world. While some are legitimate and provide cause for concern, others are trivial in the extreme. What they all share in common, however, is that they are white on black attacks, whether verbal or physical and that they are being pursued with unmitigated vigour by the law and the press. The reason I am so angry is that many cases are as I said, trivial in the extreme while at the same time similar as well as much, much worse examples of black on white attacks are ignored. Continue reading “I Am Fed Up!”

Boom!

I am a great fan of Charles Dickens, and one of my favourite books is Bleak House. However, I have always had a problem with Mr Dickens in that many of his stories revolve around improbable events.

In the Tale of Two Cities, the similarity in appearance between Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton was such that on two occasions the courts, (one English and one French) could not determine who was who. It led to the famous execution of Carton under the blade of Madame Guillotine. (It is a far far better thing …)

In Oliver Twist, Oliver is rescued by Mr Brownlow who was an old friend of his father. The list goes on. All his novels depend on similarly outlandish coincidences or unlikely events to make them work.

In Bleak House, one of the villains, Krook dies of spontaneous combustion something that Dickens believed could happen, but which some critics of the novel such as the English essayist George Henry Lewes denounced as outlandish and implausible. I shared such sentiments and have always felt that it greatly damaged the credibility of Dickens and his otherwise wonderful book.

So I was delighted to read this article. Maybe Dickens was right after all.