Tom's treasures of fiction, poetry, literature and more...

For today's blog post, I am taking you back towards the twentieth century, just as the second world war had ended. This morality play was written in 1945 but set in 1912. Between this time, people had suffered through two world wars and witnessed the sinking of the titanic. So when Arthur Birling drags on about things that he claims will happen and do, immediately it made me think is this a man we can listen to?  This is evidence enough that he gets things wrong; one example is when he states the titanic  ‘unsinkable’. Of course what he said was not true - we know and audiences in 1945/1946 (when the first UK performance was) knew it was not true. When he said this, it was quite early on in the play and after that, I was not taking him seriously. Then we have Inspector Goole... Arthur does not like him because he thinks her is calling the shots and ruining what is meant to be a happy moment that he has intruded on. But as the play goes on, he uncovers secrets and I grow to und...

Welcome back everyone! I hope autumn is nice for you. Yes summer is gone but cosy jumpers and warming soups are coming right at us! For today's blog post I give to you my review of Arthur Quiller-Couch's and Daphne du Maurier's tragic tale of 1940 - Castle Dor . Quiller-Couch started the novel but died before he could finish and it was du Maurier who got it completed. This novel, set in Cornwall is the story of lust and tragedy. As readers we are introduced to two characters that end up colliding with one another, leading to a journey of hidden desires. We have the Rose and Anchor pub which is owned by Mark Lewarne, who has recently married Linnet Lewarne. There is Deborah who is Linnet's maid. Now she plays a vital role throughout the novel though I will not spoil how. To begin with we are introduced to these two characters and then the character Amyot. As the novel progresses the two characters Linnet and Amyot keep crossing paths until they realise their feelings for...

For today's blog post I am reviewing the 1940 film version of Daphne du Maurier's classic tale Rebecca  (1938) which I reviewed and published just recently as my previous post. This black and white film sees Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine as the new Mrs de Winter. I liked Joan Fontaine's Mrs de Winter because she had a certain innocence to her. Where she had sweetness, Laurence Oliver's Max had bitterness and they complimented each other well. This for me was good as the characters were replicated well in the film. Another character who stood out by their strong portrayal was that of Judith Anderson's Mrs Danvers. Throughout the film we often saw her as opposed to hearing her. Her character was spectral, and that is something I noticed in the book. I found it chilling whenever the new Mrs de Winter would be in the house and suddenly Mrs Danvers was just there, as if she just appeared out of nowhere. This along with her clear resentment towards...