'Death is No Sportsman', 'With a Bare Bodkin' and 'Death Walks the Woods' by Cyril Hare

27 September 2026

I'm continuing to work my way through the detective novels of Cyril Hare (previously reviewed here in July and August 2026). I've now read: 'Death is No Sportsman' (published 1938) - an Inspector Mallet novel centred on a fishing syndicate on the River Didder; 'With a Bare Bodkin' (published 1946) - a wartime, office-based mystery, featuring the lawyer Francis Pettigrew, which has an amusing meta-textual element as one of the characters is himself an author of murder mysteries; and 'Death Walks the Woods' (published 1954) - another Francis Pettigrew novel which nicely links together some of the characters and geography of the other books, including 'When the Wind Blows'. All Cyril Hare's novels give a fascinating glimpse into the social history of the period and have a genteel, polite, English approach to brutal crime, but always with an unexpected, clever, plausible denouement.

'The Time of Our Singing' by Richard Powers

25 September 2026

I am grateful to Gareth Coles for giving me a copy of Richard Powers' 2002 novel, 'The Time of Our Singing'. I had previously enjoyed reading 'Playground' by Richard Powers (reviewed here in January 2026) - a novel that relied on a single brilliant twist. 'The Time of Our Singing' is a much more complete work - an epic family saga of more than 600 pages, covering more than half a century. The story follows the three children of mixed-race parents who aspire to raise them beyond the constraints of time and identity, immersing them in a world of classical music. But the realities of the outside world make it increasingly difficult to live without picking sides, particularly as the civil rights movement begins to respond the a rising epidemic of racial violence across the USA in the decades following World War II. At times it reminded me of Peter Flannery's 'Our Friend in the North' with the main characters (here three siblings rather than four friends) moving apart and then reuniting over several decades, to a background of real world news events. It is incredibly densely written: I often had to read a sentence several times to fully understand its various allusions. Powers treats the reader as an equal (and equally up to speed with classical music, physics, the civil rights movement etc), never patronisingly explaining. I realised I was probably missing much of the rich detail but I don't think that mattered too much. Powers' writing about classical music is incredibly detailed, precise and accurate (as far as I could tell: I definitely didn't get all the references). The book also deals with physics, time and relativity - both practically and metaphorically. It's a huge undertaking but the family saga at its heart is a powerful emotional hook and I was desperate to learn the fates of the various family members. Although the main narrative of the siblings' lives is told linearly (by the younger brother, Joseph), the other chapters jump backwards and forwards in time, filling in the story of their parents, grandparents and more. And, in common with the theme of time as non-linear, this pleasingly gives the sense that all these lives are going on simultaneously. Long lost, much missed characters live on in their own time strands right through the novel. Like any family saga there are, necessarily, many passings and the tale is often sad (and at times quite harrowing). But the complex mix of ideas, emotions, characters and history is brilliantly constructed and a compelling read.

Cruise to Spain, France and Italy

25 September 2026

For a third year running we enjoyed a wonderful Mediterranean cruise on the Queen Victoria. This time we joined the ship in Barcelona and visited the largest number of ports we have done on a two-week cruise, stopping at Ibiza, Ajaccio in Corsica, Messina in Sicily, Salerno, Civitavecchia, Marseille, Villefranche, Genoa and La Spezia, before spending a day in Rome. We were thrilled to discover the amazing archaeological site at Paestum near Salerno. Here you can walk around the ruins of the Greek city of Poseidona from 600 BCE (and the Roman town that succeeded it) - a site that feels as big and extensive as Pompeii, with three surviving Greek temples that rival the Parthenon in Athens. We also loved the beautiful Cinque Terre coastal hillside villages near La Spezia. We enjoyed returning to Nice (from Villefranche) and discovering Marseille and Genoa for the first time. And we finished by visiting the incredible Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome - a stunningly opulent Palazzo in the heart of the city, housing an extensive art collection. 

'How the Other Half Loves' by Alan Ayckbourn

3 September 2026

On Wednesday we were at the Old Vic in London to see Phillip Breen's new production of 'How the Other Half Loves' by Alan Ayckbourn. It was fascinating to see the Old Vic auditorium reconfigured for this 'in the round' production - which is how the play was originally staged 57 years ago. And it was a wonderful show with an excellent cast (led by Roger Allam) and brilliant comic timing, which was truly hilarious. 'How the Other Half Loves' now feels like typical Ayckbourn, with its single domestic setting, a seemingly simple comedy of manners that builds into a cleverly constructed farce of words (rather than of slapstick), playing with theatrical conventions in complex ways while still being perfectly clear and easy to follow. But this was an early Ayckbourn play that helped to establish that model, and it was notable that it lacked the darker turns of many of his later works. Alan Ayckbourn has now written more than 90 plays  and this is the 10th I have reviewed here. (We previously saw ‘Constant Companions’ his 89th play at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in 2023 - reviewed here in September 2023). 'How the Other Half Loves' famously shows two households simultaneously existing in the same hybrid living room, leading to the tour-de-force 'dinner party from hell' scene which is perfectly executed in the Old Vic production. Despite dealing with the pain and sadness of infidelity, this is an incredibly funny feelgood show. 

Edinburgh Festivals 2026

2 September 2026

We had a wonderful visit to Edinburgh last week, seeing 20 shows in four and a half days. On the Edinburgh International Festival we loved 'The Golden Age of Hollywood' - John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London at the Usher Hall playing music from classic MGM musicals of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Most of the original sheet music from this period was lost but Wilson has meticulously recreated the arrangements and it was fantastic to hear them live. We were also lucky to see the brilliant Pavel Haas Quartet playing string quartets by Martinů, Korngold and Dvořák at the Queen's Hall. On the Edinburgh Fringe we saw lots of amazing fringe theatre. Our favourites included 'Helen Bradley: Painter and Storyteller' - a one-woman show with Kara Wilson playing the Edwardian painter from Oldham telling us the story of her life while we watched her painting a picture in the style of Helen Bradley. 'Sublimation' was another great solo performance - written and acted by Frank Murdocco - about a one-man business struggling to survive in contemporary New York when offered a Faustian bargain that would solve his financial crisis while compromising his political and moral principles. We enjoyed EXIT - a strange but compelling piece of physical theatre by the Belgian company Circumstances, which is essentially four men walking through doors for an hour. This wordless show is funny, inventive and incredibly impressive, blending circus skills, dance and gymnastics. 'Supposing' - a new play by Zinnie Harris at the Traverse Theatre starring Nicole Cooper and Richard Conlon - was a stunning piece of small-scale theatre. After falling into a hole in the street outside the local theatre, Sally becomes convinced she has been cursed and begins to hear a Greek chorus in her head. She appears to be living a series of Greek tragedies - to the bemusement and increasing concern of her husband. It's a funny, intriguing and disturbing play, brilliantly acted. But I think my favourite fringe show this year was 'The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much' by the physical theatre company Voloz Collective - a Hitchcockian noir spoof set in 1960s New York involving spies, terrorists, assassinations and political plots. Four actors conjure up a comic book world with the minimum of props and the maximum use of their bodies. It's clever, fast-moving and hilarious.

'Actually, I'm a Murderer' by Terry Deary

23 August 2026

Terry Deary is best known for the Horrible Histories series. His first novel for adults, 'Actually, I'm a Murderer' (which I've just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Adam Stevens, Anna Gilthorpe and Sam Stafford) has a similarly irreverent tone, but a little more sex and violence. It is set in Sunderland in 1973 and is a murder mystery thriller narrated in rotation by three of the people involved. There are some nice twists, surprises and coincidences, with revelations appearing when the same scene is described from the point of view of a different protagonist. The plot becomes a cleverly constructed farce and never takes itself too seriously. It's a light but very enjoyable tale and looks set to be the first in a series of linked novels.

'The Oresteia' by Simon Stone, after Aeschylus & Others

21 August 2026

On Thursday we were at the Bridge Theatre in London to see a new production of 'The Oresteia', written and directed by Simon Stone "After Aeschylus & Others". 'The Oresteia' by Aeschylus is the only surviving ancient Greek trilogy of three connected plays. Recounting the murder of King Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra in revenge for his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia - followed, in turn, by their son Orestes avenging the death of his father by executing Clytemnestra and her lover. (According to Professor Edith Hall, writing in the Theatre Programme, the Oresteia was in fact a tetralogy. The fourth play, now lost to us, was a rumbustious satyr drama, with the chorus changing into hairy body suits with animal hooves.) The Australian writer and director Simon Stone comes to 'The Oresteia' having developed a reputation for re-workings of classics, from 'Medea' and 'Phaedra' to Ibsen's 'Wild Duck' and 'The Lady from the Sea'. We saw his version of Lorca's 'Yerma', starring Billy Piper, in 2017 (reviewed here in September 2017), in a modern setting in which the characters were encased in an enormous glass box that filled the stage. Stone's technique involves building the script through rehearsals, drawing inspiration from his cast's work. The first thing that strikes you about the Oresteia is the incredible set by Lizzie Clachan - an almost life-size two-storey house on a massive revolving stage, allowing the audience to peer through floor-to-ceiling windows into a giant doll's house, revealing the trauma going on in Agamemnon's family. As with the glass box from 'Yerma' (also designed by Lizzie Clachan), the glass windows of the house mean we can only hear the actors through their microphones: there is one scene with a character throwing boxes around a bedroom where we can hear what he is saying but the colliding props are eerily silent to us. Unfortunately some of the witty crosstalk in the early scenes is hard to follow because the detail of the characters speaking over each other is not distinct enough through the microphones. Stone uses the modern day setting to skip backwards and forwards through the tragic events spanning 2016 to 2026, gradually piecing together the story of murder and revenge. This creates a gripping narrative structure for the drama and makes much better use of the principal actors than having them play no further part after their murders. David Morrissey plays Christopher ('Agamemnon') and Mary Louise-Parker his wife Montie ('Clytemnestra') with Tom Glyn-Carney as their son Augie ('Orestes') and Rosie Sheehy as their daughter Alice ('Electra'). We last saw Sheehy stealing the show in 'The Brightening Air' by Conor McPherson at the Old Vic (reviewed here in May 2025). It's a spectacular and intriguing production that teeters between angst-ridden tragedy, black comedy and grand guignol, but I'm not sure it entirely works. The test of any modern reworking of Greek tragedy should be whether, by the end, we believe that these events would have driven these modern characters to commit the heinous acts they do. When we saw Mike Bartlett's new version of 'Medea' at Watford Palace Theatre in 2012 (reviewed here in November 2012), he did succeed in making us believe that Rachael Sterling's Medea would have murdered her children. But while Simon Stone's 'Oresteia' definitely showed the extreme emotional strain of each of the protagonists, I wasn't totally convinced that in its modern setting this would have led to the slaughter we witnessed. And by abandoning the chronological sequence of events of the three original plays, there's really no reason to present it in three acts with two intervals: it felt a little indulgent at three and a half hours long. Nevertheless, it's a very well-acted, inventive and visually stunning production. 

'He Should Have Died Hereafter' and 'An English Murder' by Cyril Hare

17 August 2026

Having enjoyed my first Cyril Hare detective novel, 'When the Wind Blows' (reviewed here in July 2026), I have now devoured two more of his books. 'He Should Have Died Hereafter', published in 1958, again features the retired lawyer Francis Pettigrew (whose wife played in the amateur orchestra in 'When the Wind Blows' and who is the protagonist of a series of five murder mysteries by Cyril Hare). In 'He Should Have Died Hereafter' Pettigrew joins forces with the retired Inspector Mallet (who himself appears in seven Hare novels) to solve a mysterious death on Exmoor. 'An English Murder' published in 1951 (based on a 1948 radio play by Cyril Hare, 'Murder at Warbeck Hall') is a quintessential country house murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie, with guests gathered for a family Christmas and the house cut off from the rest of the world by snow. It feels like it comes from a previous era with its cast of aristocrats and a very polite butler, but is actually set during the early years of the post-war Labour government. I don't know whether the three books I've read are a representative sample of the works of Cyril Hare but they certainly have some common recurring themes to their plots. Nevertheless, all three have been very readable, funny and clever, while revealing some interesting social history details.