Tim Leach
@timleachwriter
Writer of historical fiction, Associate Professor at University of Warwick. Website: Books:
Went to Bempton cliffs and Flamborough Head to enjoy the beautiful sea cliffs and the teeming sea birds. Magic!
36. The Sleeping Sorceress, Michael Moorcock Uneven quality (even though Elric as a flaneur in Paris has its charms), but the central story is strong in all the right Elric ways (moody and trippy).
19. Legend of the Galactic Heroes (Season 1) Like Star Wars and War and Peace had an 80s anime baby. Ignore the slightly naff title, a really thoughtful and engaging space opera, with great characters and concepts. Amazing classical soundtrack, too, loads of Mahler, Beethoven, Mozart etc...
12. La Boheme (live) First ever in person opera - belissimo! Charming, funny, wildly romantic, and wonderful staging.
35. Florenzer, Phil Melanson Rich, stylish, and sensuous - set in Renaissance Florence, alternating perspectives between a Medici, an ambitious priest, and a young Leonardo da Vinci. A hornier Wolf Hall.
11. The Odyssey Amazing visuals, stunning sound, strong performances, but a pretty wobbly script (Nolan has entered the too famous to be edited or told no era which is bad for writing quality). A grand spectacle nonetheless, and it did make me Feel Things by the end.
18. From (Season 4) A little more laboured than previous seasons, but a strong finale to set up the last season.
34. Sailor on the Seas of Fate, Michael Moorcock I liked this one a little less, the stories didn't quite hit in the same way. However, the first Elric story (The Dreaming City) is great, and fascinating to see how influential it has been.
33. The Ancient Celts, Barry Cunliffe A very thorough and readable overview of the archaeological and written record (incomplete as it is), busting many of my pre-conceptions about pre-Roman Britain (especially in regards to extensive trade networks). Beautiful arts and crafts, too.
32. The Fortress of the Pearl, Michael Moorcock More splendidly psychedelic Sword and Sorcery, tinged with melancholy. Rapidly becoming as addicted to this as Elric is to his various drugs and tinctures (and Stormbringer is to devouring souls...)
It is pleasing (and prescient) that whenever Elric uses this kind of phrase, it's clear in the text that to 'make x great again' would be a very bad outcome.
31. Elric of Melniboné and Other Stories Great stuff - strange, brooding, psychedelic Sword and Sorcery (though a very oddly organised first collection, bloated with introductions and a graphic novel script). Looking forward to reading the whole series.
10. Supergirl Good fun - great lead performance, and wrapped up in less than 2 hours. Shame it isn't doing better, but I guess superhero fatigue is real (and I think the marketing could have been better).
I write capital letter notes to myself as I draft novels, and some of them are pleasingly niche.
30. Swords and Deviltry, Fritz Leiber Solidly enjoyable, but I was hoping to like this more than I did. A mismatched pair of Sword and Sorcery heroes should be exactly my kind of thing, but it didn't do too much for me in the end.
29. An Excellent Mystery, Ellis Peters Not my favourite of the Cadfael books I've read, but there's still plenty to enjoy here, and some surprisingly strange and thoughtful character work.
Recommendation for folks who like their coffee black - the Espresso Tonic is delicious in hot weather. Espresso, tonic, bit of lemon juice, tiny bit of salt.
9. Backrooms Great stuff! Unsettling, eerie, and surprisingly melancholy. It's great to be living in a golden age of horror. Also, a great example of an increasingly rare beast these days, the 1 hour 45 min film.
28. Memories of Ice Read earlier in the year, somehow missed this one off. I gave it one more book, but decided that Malazan wasn't for me.
27. The Ocean and the Bones, Genevieve Carver A thoughtful reimagining of a prehistorical community, and a cracking, well paced adventure.
8. Angel's Egg Dreamy and surreal, strange and beautiful. If Tarkovsky made an anime, it'd look like this. Originally released in 1985, fascinating to see its influence on Dark Souls, Hollow Knight etc.
15. Widow's Bay The hype is real, an absolute delight. Midnight Mass meets Parks and Recreation, a perfectly pitched horror comedy. Whole cast is great, but Patricia is love, Patricia is life.