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Another book which I bought a few weeks ago is Martyr by Rory Clements. It is Set in 1587 and starts off In a burnt-out house, where one of Queen Elizabeth’s aristocratic cousins is found murdered, her flesh marked with profane symbols. At the same time a plot is also discovered to assassinate England’s feared sea warrior Sir Francis Drake – a plot which, if successful, could leave the country open to Spanish invasion.

So a chap named John Shakespeare, the chief intelligencer in Sir Francis Walsingam’s spy network, is trusted with the task of protecting Sir Francis Drake from assassination.

Following a trail of illicit passions and family secrets, Shakespeare travels through a teeming underworld of enemy agents, sorcerers, whores and poets, among whom is his own younger brother, the struggling playmaker Will.

As he unravels a complex conspiracy of international intrigue, he finds himself shadowed at every turn by his deadly rival, the Queen’s brutal torturer Richard Topcliffe – John Shakespeare soon realises his own family and the beautiful woman he desires could also be in grave danger…

Not to be confused with anything smutty, This is a chilling gritty thriller which was offered for £2.99 with a newspaper recently, it sounded like a really exciting read so I thought I’d get it.

It features a character named Charlie Parker, who is haunted by the death of his father, an NYPD Cop who killed two teenagers before killing himself. Charlie is also haunted by the ghost of a murdered wife and child.

He then discovers that the spirits of two lovers have also returned and their desire for each other is as strong as their will to do evil, and what is worse they want to clobber Charlie. This leads him on a desperate search to seek out the truth behind his Father’s demise, which is unfortunately buried beneath years of secrecy and lies and Charlie faces an uphill struggle to solve the mystery before it is too late…

Nothing to do with the property program on Channel 4, this is instead a glossy adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s novel “An American Tragedy” which won Six Oscars and was available with a Sunday newspaper recently. I really enjoyed it.

It stars Elizabeth Taylor & Montgomery Clift as Angela Vickers and George Eastman two people from completely different social backgrounds, who meet and fall in love. She is a beautiful, wealthy socialite and he is a poor young man. .

Despite their differences George is determined to gain a place in respectable society and win the hand of Angela. However a young factory girl (Shelley Winters) is hiding a secret which threatens his romantic & professional prospects and drives him to commit an act of passion that threatens to unravel his world forever..

The Curse of Peladon
I’ve recently bought a Doctor Who boxed set containing both stories set on Peladon, the first is a creepy atmospheric story, in which The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) & Jo(Katy Manning) arrive on the desolate planet of Peladon during a galactic conference, and soon find themselves becoming embroiled in a game of political intrigue.

Among the other Delegates present are The King of Peladon and a motley assortment of aliens including The Ice Warriors & a Hermaphrodite Hexapod named Alpha Centauri.

The conference is taking place to enable Peladon to join the Federation, However not everyone is happy about this and the Doctor soon suspects that someone is trying to sabotage the conference by citing an ancient legend of a fearsome monster which will bring about death and destruction if displeased. At first everyone thinks this is a load of superstitious nonsense, but then people start dying….

Monster of Peladon
The second story is a creepy and atmospheric six-part episode in which the Doctor (John Pertwee) and his companion Sarah Jane (Elizabeth Sladon) return to the planet of Peladon some fifty years after the first visit & find a troubled planet ruled by the late King’s daughter Queen Talira (Nina Thomas) who rather reminds me of Rogue with that hair

The place is in the middle of a war and is in turmoil, the Federation is desperate to mine a mineral which is found only on Peladon, but someone or something is preventing this by terrorizing the miners. Being very superstitious, they suspect it is the Spirit of the legendary Aggador, who is very unhappy at having his sacred mountain desecrated.

The Doctor however is convinced that there is a more rational explanation so he intervenes in order to placate the unhappy miners, who want to mount an armed rebellion. At first he suspects Chancellor Ortron (Frank Gatliff) who is controlling the Queen and seems to be hell-bent on causing more trouble, but then he discovers an old enemy lurking in the caves….
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The Masque of Mandragora
The next classic Doctor Who episode to be released on DVD is The Masque of Mandragora in which the Doctor (Tom Baker) unwittingly brings back something rather unpleasant from outer space, and when he lands on 14th Century Earth it escapes, takes over the first person it meets & proceeds to run amok….

A DVD of Neil Simon’s Classic 1968 Comedy “The Odd Couple” was given away with a weekend paper recently. I still think it is hilarious, Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau are both great. Now having seen it again I would also like to get more Neil Simon comedies.

Jack Lemmon stars as a neurotic chap named Felix Unger, who devastated by his recent divorce, decides to move in with his happily divorced friend Oscar (Walter Matthau). Unfortunately Felix likes everything spotlessly clean and Oscar is a total slob, the results are predictably hilarious and they find their friendship being severely tested…

A Woman spots a handsome lone man at a party, so she walks over and starts chatting to him

“Hi My name is Carmen” she says

“What a beautiful name” he replies

“Thank You” She says “It reflects the two things I love most in life- Cars & Men, by the way what is your name?

Beer**** he replies

A fifty-four year old professor leaves his wife and sends her a text message saying

“By the time you get this message I will have left you and I will be in a hotel making love to my gorgeous eighteen year old girlfriend”

His wife, who is also fifty-four sends this reply shortly afterwards

“By the time you get this reply I will also be making love to my eighteen year old toy-boy, and being a Professor you should be able to work out that eighteen goes into fifty-four a lot more times than the other way round limp ****.”