Matthew Sweet
@drmatthewsweet
Writer, broadcaster, Barbara Cartland fan
Another Waterstones offer. No coupons required. www.waterstones.com/book/bookish...
Big Babs discount if you pre-order this week from Waterstones www.waterstones.com/book/the-gre...
The Three Colours trilogy - in a heatwave last night in Bielsko-Biała.
The Bookish paperback is out today! Series 2 airs this summer. And there will be a novelisation of that, too. www.quercusbooks.co.uk/contributor/...
Carlo Ginzberg is dead. The giant of microhistory. If you don't know his book The Cheese and the Worms, seek it out. When I first read it as a student it changed my sense of what history-writing could do. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak in Stockholm - via zoom - last year. A brilliant mind.
Last night I became one of the new patrons of the Wilkie Collins Society. I did my DPhil on him 30 years ago so I would love to know who’s working on him or reading him now - with a view to organising an event. Who’s a fan? (And here’s a link to the Society website.) wilkiecollinssociety.org
My latest Dr Who story is in this set: @nicolabryant.bsky.social goes undercover at a 1960s computer dating agency run by Annette Badland; the Doctor and Turlough go to the disco and meet Ginger Rogers. It's *very* serious. www.bigfinish.com/news/v/turlo...
Come and fly in our beautiful balloon - and see who/what gets chucked out.
Goodbye Michael Keating. The Vila of all our hearts. He was in the first thing I ever wrote, playing a mutant piglet who thought he was Hercule Poirot. In quiet patches he did the odd ushering shift at ENO. I never saw tickets torn with such panache.
Top Secret - which was led by William Franklyn - is completely lost. My Mum could sing the theme tune, which is by Laurie Johnson. She told me to sing it to Alan, which I did. Which rather surprised him.
Let us salute the rogue genius of Desmond Morris, ape-watcher and last of the Surrealists, gone at 98. Here he is, less than 2 years ago, with his Man Ray tribute work - the photographic lips are those of Diana Dors, whom he dated in the 40s when she was still Diana Fluck.
Barbara is coming … and here’s the cover. Out September, available to preorder now. www.amazon.co.uk/Barbara-Cart...
The death of Nathalie Baye makes me feel so sad. Her work with Truffaut, Godard makes her immortal. But her loss reminds me of interviewing her in her hotel suite and coming home smelling of her cigarettes, on a fleeting afternoon 25 years ago.
Someone posted this in the other place. And it led me to this gorgeous Third Programme oddity. A radio play without dialogue by Andrew Sachs. In binaural sound. And inspired by a thought from Tom Stoppard ... archive.org/details/the-...
Did someone borrow their names? Or are they actually time travellers, who might turn up at Riverside studios tomorrow? No, this is Rene Heath's death announcement - the tour is to the afterlife.
Here's an account of her in the Benson troupe in 1943. But here's something very odd that it took me a few moments to understand. It's a clipping from the Stage in 1986...
And here's Rene on Desperus and on the bill as a "speciality comedienne" in 1935 - Karl Edwards was her father. She had a long career in panto and variety and was, like Bill Hartnell, in the Frank Benson troupe. Maybe she was an old friend who needed a bit of work?
Here's Beatrice on Desperus in 1965 and doling out horrible food in the 1970 version of Separate Tables.
One of the big Dr Who surprises of today - pointed out by @eddierobson.bsky.social - is there are women on the planet Desperus - and they are in a very unenviable position. They're played by Beatrice Greeke - misspelt as Greetz in the paperwork. And Rene Heath.
And one of them comes right to the foreground ... brutal little detail - almost invisible!
I'm thinking, though - is that really roly poly or a Danish cinnamon whirl?