tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.comments2024-03-14T05:11:55.141-04:00Existential EnnuiNick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comBlogger3169125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-5729119344716786482024-02-07T12:20:45.152-05:002024-02-07T12:20:45.152-05:00Hi Anonymous, the school you mentioned must have b...Hi Anonymous, the school you mentioned must have been Walpole Grammar school. I am the admin for the Walpole Grammar school memories group on Facebook. Why not come and join the group?. We have 594 members so far.<br />Regards<br />John HardyJohn Hardynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-39521041132322678142023-11-03T06:34:41.147-04:002023-11-03T06:34:41.147-04:00A fascinating study of a really interesting writer...A fascinating study of a really interesting writer.Martin Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16082485795280777670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-71899164395918212742023-09-08T11:05:35.499-04:002023-09-08T11:05:35.499-04:00I first encountered Anthony price's books when...I first encountered Anthony price's books when the Orion crime masterworks included three of his books in the early 2000s (I was in my mid 20s and it appears not the sort of reader Price expected of his novels at that time!) and I then built up a full set of the novels from charity and second hand shops over the years. I remain staggered that his work is not properly back in print. the series maintains a high quality throughout. It was such a pleasure to read the interview you carried out. Thank you for doing this and for keeping the flame alive. Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09453779234850645049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-23067097295627638482023-08-31T07:06:06.166-04:002023-08-31T07:06:06.166-04:00Chris and Gavin were in a band that, minus Gavin, ...Chris and Gavin were in a band that, minus Gavin, eventually became Emperor Julian and released three 7" EPs on the Piao! record label.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-58344686045450537392023-08-03T05:58:34.363-04:002023-08-03T05:58:34.363-04:00I can confirm they are the very same person. Andre...I can confirm they are the very same person. Andrew is my great grandfather, sadly he passed away at home in 2001 when I was a child so sadly I have no memories of him, however I do have some photographs of us together. I’m ashamed to say I’ve never actually read any of his books but I do plan to when I next visit my grandmother (Andrew’s daughter) who has a bookcase with a few copies of his old books in their original plastic covering keeping them preserved even till this day. However I’ll make sure to read an already opened book, don’t you worry. :) Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-77937787379689582502023-05-28T06:28:01.993-04:002023-05-28T06:28:01.993-04:00Nice post thank you JohnNice post thank you JohnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-69385493352698809662023-05-26T05:36:27.826-04:002023-05-26T05:36:27.826-04:00Thanks for this. I am also reading the Ripley nove...Thanks for this. I am also reading the Ripley novels in succession which doubtless make the timeline anomalies more noticeable. I guessed that Highsmith was effectively setting the novels in the present day of when she wrote them whilst, at the same time, suggesting that only a few years had passed since the previous novel. I decided to see if someone else had taken the trouble to summarise the timeline clues so I wouldn't have to!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-34825048341637534762023-03-07T19:29:54.519-05:002023-03-07T19:29:54.519-05:00Speaking of Fast Fiction, I ran into an ad for a c...Speaking of Fast Fiction, I ran into an ad for a comic book by a P. Owen called "Boys." It suppose to be characters with arrows in their bodies. I think single page illustrations so it might not be a comic book per se, but it is advertised in the format. Any idea of what this book looks like? I can't find anything online or who this P. Owen artist is. I have the ad if you'd like to see it.Luis Diazhttp://LuisDiaz.Artnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-64636865349265143992023-01-30T00:16:18.283-05:002023-01-30T00:16:18.283-05:00"A Life for the Stars" caught my attenti..."A Life for the Stars" caught my attention but I imagine the cover art doesn’t actually reflect the content. These aren’t the covers showing buxom space nymphs that were apparently popular for science fiction but look! Look at the cover! Three mm m … checks notes- 1966 … right … three men, 2 have complete head domes, crispy space underwear and manly bidigital hooks for pulling the 3rd who may be able to breathe the craggy, splintered rock air (the only type of non-terrestrial air in the 1960s) or he’s just wearing Star Trek red and we can’t see it. I lay odds I could read the book forward and backwards and never solve the fundamental mystery presented by front cover. <br /><br />Pity. <br />Tree Climbing Dognoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-45879839843771442512022-10-17T08:32:46.756-04:002022-10-17T08:32:46.756-04:00Thanks for this, Mark. As you say, we can but hope...Thanks for this, Mark. As you say, we can but hope that Mr. Mazzucchelli will come round to the idea of a monograph at some point. <br /><br />Best,<br /><br />NickAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-43254484772895639652022-10-15T23:12:54.323-04:002022-10-15T23:12:54.323-04:00Thanks for putting this together. It is most usefu...Thanks for putting this together. It is most useful. BTW, I've corresponded with Mazzucchelli and he is an extremely generous person. I asked him if there are plans to issue all of his post DD alternative comics in a single monograph. Unfortunately, he said no, there are not. I got the feeling that as an artist he has moved on and is no longer interested in this work. This isn't to say that it doesn't have value, it's just that Mazzucchelli is now working in other areas. Here's hoping that his stance softens over time toward this period of his creative output, which many consider to be of special importance in the realm of late 20th century alternative comics. <br /><br />BTW, many of the hard to find gems list above can be found in digital form, online, with a little effort. <br /><br />Lastly, all 27 issues of Zero Zero can be found here (this is a link to DM's "Stop the Hair Nude": <br />https://archive.org/details/zerozero1/Zero%20Zero%20%2302%20%28May-June%201995%29%20%5BPyramid%5D/page/n25/mode/2up <br /><br />All the best, <br />Mark (from Toronto) Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-4028062404536728312022-09-11T17:10:23.588-04:002022-09-11T17:10:23.588-04:00Do you know the music that was played when Thorne ...Do you know the music that was played when Thorne and Hendricks were in the club and Hendricks gives tom and update on the case tells Thorne that the killers taking the victims east etc? - and he's also worried that Julian knows something about calvert.<br />Im absolutely desperate to find out the song, I have tried everything! (even Shazam cannot find the song)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-48143690423156574772022-08-28T05:36:51.775-04:002022-08-28T05:36:51.775-04:00Thanks. This is very useful. It will help me watch...Thanks. This is very useful. It will help me watch out for export editions. I was onto BCA (why oh why did the publishers arrange anything with BCA). At a National Trust bookshop yesterday I saw a copy of the book you are discussing here - priced £2. I had noticed elsewhere in the shop those tell-tale signs that ‘they know what they’re doing and there’ll be no bargains here’, so I left the £2 copy thinking they wouldn’t have missed a true first. When I got home I found out from you that there’s a version with maps. Theirs didn’t have maps. Fair play; they at least priced their copy honestly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-54348488614955854042022-08-25T11:41:46.903-04:002022-08-25T11:41:46.903-04:00Yes, I too was taught by him at Knebworth school. ...Yes, I too was taught by him at Knebworth school. He was a charming man who used to tease me sometimes by singing Carolina Moonlight (my name is Carolyn) when we were writing during English lessons!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-7466030070122035292022-06-26T20:02:05.386-04:002022-06-26T20:02:05.386-04:00Would you say john bances book fronts are the best...Would you say john bances book fronts are the best in her series they got into top books fronts of the sixties i cant find anything else about him online But i would like to learn more about him his his artwork Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-91534614901840211792021-12-08T22:30:33.905-05:002021-12-08T22:30:33.905-05:00Wonderful covers - I had several, but not the whol...Wonderful covers - I had several, but not the whole set, and they are the editions in which I first read Greene, at school in New Zealand in the 1960s. I have a nice scan of The Confidential Agent if it would be of use. The one you posted gets a bit ragged when you blow it up! And if you ever come across the dust jackets to John Buchan's The Complete Adventures of Sir Edward Leithen or The Complete Adventures of Dickson McCunn, I've been looking for them for years! But keep up the good work: your site is a delight, gavin.scott@verizon.netGavin Scotthttp://www.gavinscott.conoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-63014934598297794932021-11-24T11:36:52.804-05:002021-11-24T11:36:52.804-05:00Ooh, that's good to know – thanks for the tip!...Ooh, that's good to know – thanks for the tip!Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-39930854373459183662021-11-24T11:28:42.413-05:002021-11-24T11:28:42.413-05:00Thought this might interest you, if you didn't...Thought this might interest you, if you didn't know it already: all 13 episodes of the notorious, and hitherto elusive, BBC <i>Quiller</i> series starring Michael Jayston (<i>Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy</i>'s superb Peter Guillam) have been posted by someone at the Michael Jayston Site on YouTube.<br /><br />The first episode is here; the end of each video leads you to the next one.<br /><br />Quiller S01E01 "The Price of Violence" - YouTube<br /><br />This allows the opportunity to see if the series is really as bad as legend has it, and eventually I'm sure I'll have to subject myself to all of them, just on general principle..<br /><br />More to the point, though, it gives me access to the second episode, "The Tango Briefing" (the only episode based on one of the books, adapted by Adam Hall himself), so that I can compare it with the novel in my upcoming Quiller article for <i>bare</i>*bones:<br /><br />Quiller S01E02 "Tango Briefing" - YouTubeMatthew Bradleyhttps://bradleyonfilm.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-67963910284477595242021-11-09T05:36:46.623-05:002021-11-09T05:36:46.623-05:00I'll certainly bear all that in mind – thanks ...I'll certainly bear all that in mind – thanks for the comment! Based on previous rereads, I suspect I'll be revising my opinions again if I ever get the chance to do a re-reread.Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-91368976465169700932021-11-08T23:01:30.338-05:002021-11-08T23:01:30.338-05:00When you do your Great Ripley Re-Read Redux, I hop...When you do your Great Ripley Re-Read Redux, I hope you might look upon this novel with greater affection. It may lack the urgency of the other novels in terms of violence, but there is an urgency of heart and loins. There is also an existential threat, originating not from the outside (as is usual), but from within, i.e., Tom's relation to his sexuality (and by extension Highsmith's relation to her own).<br /><br />There is an honesty in this book that Highsmith usually camouflages with violence and obsession, but here she lets her guard down (if only to a certain extent). When Tom tells the Berlin bear "You will have a good home for the rest of your life," the mix of melancholy, regret, repression, and desire is devastating. Brooklyn_Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17591782689798560587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-52830452229574119282021-11-06T23:18:44.878-04:002021-11-06T23:18:44.878-04:00Some very interesting postings on I am Legend etc ...Some very interesting postings on I am Legend etc folks.<br />First time of commenting although I have followed Nick's ravings (?) for some time.<br /><br />As a media studies teacher (now retired) I once encouraged my students to look at the way I am Legend influenced films like Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Between The Omega Man (yes my guilty pleasure too!)and the OTT Will Smith version, another variation was planned with Schwarzenegger! The script is online. Not great. The cost torpedoed it but elements crop up in Smith's film like the super powerful mutants.<br />One point of interest is that if you look at the credits in the Smith screenplay, The Omega Man screenwriters are also given a credit. Some ideas, like the mannequins are clearly based on the Heston film.<br /><br />No more to add now<br /><br />all the best<br /><br />TerryAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05063335574003998653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-22816717917868719302021-10-30T12:38:32.246-04:002021-10-30T12:38:32.246-04:00I was very interested to read your clarification o...I was very interested to read your clarification of the Honourable Schoolboy 1st Edition Conundrum!<br />I have 3 different copies of this 1st Edition 1st Printing. <br />My Real 1st Edition has Blue Cloth Binding with Gold Spine Lettering and Map endpapers with priced dustjacket. <br />My Second 1st Edition copy is the same but with price clipped and with Hodder and Stoughton US $10.95 price sticker on back of dustjacket. This copy could well be the format for export 1st Edition! <br />My third 1st Edition copy has black cloth binding with silver lettering No Maps on Endpapers and no price on dustjacket and paper quality seemed inferior. This corresponds to your description of the 1st Book Club Edition. Sunbeam64https://www.blogger.com/profile/17306165960035410308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-2440788740918693512021-10-28T08:52:12.200-04:002021-10-28T08:52:12.200-04:00Peter Edwards did a gorgeous poster for the GPO wh...Peter Edwards did a gorgeous poster for the GPO which i'd love to show ... he went on to do Thomas Tank Engine covers.Jim Penningtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08112749411068007584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-58206046633268363242021-07-23T02:07:05.941-04:002021-07-23T02:07:05.941-04:00Thanks Eric! You might find the Ripley Reread post...Thanks Eric! You might find the Ripley Reread posts diverting, or maybe the Ripley's Game/American Friend one, but there's lots of other stuff besides.Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-75683293748401078922021-07-22T14:19:36.485-04:002021-07-22T14:19:36.485-04:00I came across this through a Google search while d...I came across this through a Google search while doing my own binge-read of Ripley, after my brain cracked a little trying to reconcile a paragraph in <i>Ripley Under Ground</i> in which we're told the events are five years after Murchison's murder with a paragraph in which Reeves Minot mentions the late-80s Salman Rushdie novel <i>The Satanic Verses</i>. Clearly the lesson is I just shouldn't worry about it more than Highsmith did!<br /><br />It occurs to me that it's not just the obsessiveness of readers; if you read these as they were published, you almost certainly didn't even notice the anachronisms, but reading them in quick succession the anachronisms fly right out at you (and possibly other contradictions--I can't look right now, but I think the owners of the local bar-tabac have switched political parties and completely crossed the aisle since I last saw them).<br /><br />Anyway, thank you for the post. I look forward to reading some other posts here.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18275812152895151542noreply@blogger.com