The Website of Karl Wilcox

Blue Moon

2026-04-24T00:00:00+01:00

You don’t need explosions and spectacle to create compelling drama. Blue Moon very ably demonstrates that you can succeed with just a handful of actors in a few static interior sets. If the acting and writing are good enough you will not be able to take your eyes off the screen.

And the acting and writing were both more than good enough. This is the story of Lorenz “Larry” Hart, the original partner of Dick Rogers and described in the movie as “the saddest man I know”.

It is indeed a sad tale, of how someone a bit “different” (shorter than average, gay when it wasn’t acceptable, possibly a bit ADHD) but also very talented cannot fit into a society that won’t accept him for what he is, despite his success, and he almost inevitably turns to alcohol.

Brilliantly played by Ethan Hawke, well deserving of an actual win rather than yet another unsuccessful Oscar nomination; and brilliantly written. I loved the Easter-egg “call outs” to other stories, Stephen Sondheim and Stuart Little and the costumes were nicely done too.

GCHQ

2026-04-24T00:00:00+01:00

I’ve had the John Ferris book “Behind the Enigma” on my reading pile for a while but hadn’t really been able to get into it, a bit dry and taking some time to actually get started; so when I saw this competitor account in Oxfam I thought I would give it a go. This one I quite enjoyed – it moved at a much better pace and arguably started at a better point in time. I learned a lot from this – especially about incidents from the Cold War that turned out to be a very real conflict for some people, especially spy plane aircrews.

There is even-handed coverage of successes and failures, and an honest appraisal of the damage done by spies, double agents and leakers and a fairly up to date new section on the challenge of cyber crime and the balance between creating hacking tools and defending against them.

Overall a good solid account well worth reading, although it has also taught me that I am a bit of a snobbish book collector as I didn’t deem this rather tatty second-hand volume fit for my permanent collection so it has gone back to Oxfam for another charity purchase…

Other Bennet Sister

2026-04-22T00:00:00+01:00

Everything about this was just delightful! It was cleverly written, with plausible links into the ongoing lives of the pride and prejudice characters. I particularly liked the way that Mr Darcy was not portrayed as dashing, handsome and the way that he remained in the background (deliberately so when the formidable Mrs Bennet was around!). I also liked the way that the sometimes simplistic characters from P&P were shown to have depth. Mr Collins was still odious but revealed hidden doubts; Miss Bingley was still a stuck up bitch but revealed a love for poetry and did a selfless deed at the end.

As we have come to expect these days, the production quality was very high – lovely costumes, lavish settings and some very carefully composed shots reinforced the formal strictures everyone was labouring under – I particularly liked the framing of the final scenes in the garden, with our protagonists perfectly placed either side of the fountain.

The camera work was steady, the peril minor (although the anguish and frustration were intense!) this was a very watchable series and indeed I would be perfectly happy to watch it all over again quite soon

Summer Without You

2026-04-20T00:00:00+01:00

The boyfriend of our hero Rowenna announces that he is going to Borneo for six months and will then return to start an engagement.

A stunned “Roe”, through a slightly unlikely series of events, ends up renting a room for the summer in a fancy house in the exclusive Hamptons. Although living in London she is American by birth so starts up a photography business to make ends meet.

She meets and gets to know the locals, their relationships, politics and business dealings and becomes very involved in all of them.

I listened to this as an audio book and being a cold and wet British March it was lovely to sneak away to a sun kissed moneyed paradise with lots of interesting people!

I’m not sure that I fully followed the machinations behind the business dealings that lead to the unfortunate incident on the golf course that was expounded in the final chapters but that wasn’t the primary story here. What we really wanted to know was how Roe would resolve the tangled relationships she finds herself further into and once the absent boyfriend turns up things get even more complicated!

Yes, this is a bit of a comfort read but it is full of real characters that we do care about, it’s always fun to read about rich people and their belongings! (Pomellato gets a name check here!) and this was a fun listen from the ever reliable pen of Ms Swan.

Jitterbug

2026-04-12T00:00:00+01:00

Our Gareth certainly likes his huge space fleets and engages them in battle at the end of both this and the “Embers of War” series! To start with however this is a much smaller scale story, focused on a small tramp freighter with a crew of five. There’s a good relationship between all the crew members, who are each nicely drawn with some good witty repartee. In many ways this part of the story is what I expected “A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet” to be, but that book I haven’t been able to finish yet as it just hasn’t gelled the way that “Jitterbug” does.

We soon realise that we are also in the genre of the “Big Dumb Object”, the weird segments that have been constructed from the gas giants, but these are (incorrectly in hindsight) rather taken for granted. What begins as a small tale of bounty hunting expands to a political thriller and then a galaxy spanning conflict.

There’s a huge amount of exposition crammed into the last fifth of the book, including a complex alternate timeline that actually sounded more interesting than this one.

A good story, perhaps a bit unevenly paced but the characterisation is good. I must say however that I didn’t like the title or the fairly unimaginative and frankly, dull cover, and would not have bought this except for the author name recognition, but overall I’m glad that I did.

One Battle After Another

2026-04-08T00:00:00+01:00

I have to say that I didn’t really like this. The first part seemed a bit unfocused without a primary protagonist and no characters I could feel any sympathy with. The second half was better being focused on Wila and her father but it is yet another film that beats you about the head rather than letting you understand things on your own terms. Instead of letting us realise that a scene is very tense by us interpreting the skills of the actors and the choices of the director and editor, that tension is forced on us by over loud discordant piano “music”. There is no subtlety allowed, even for a moment.

I realise that this was intended to be dark but much of the comedy seemed unintentional to me. In particular the over-extended car chase was straight out of “wacky races”, complete with Penelope Pitstop, Dick Dastardly and one of the Boulder brothers. And all of us watching laughed out loud when each car came staggering along the desert road.

I do admit that it was convincingly acted (especially Wila) but none of the characters had much actual depth and the direction was pretty stylish but overall this was just passable and too much in your face to be an enjoyable (or even interesting) experience.

Bill Bailey’s Vietnam

2026-04-02T00:00:00+01:00

There was an article in The Guardian recently pleading for an end to sending comedians on exotic journeys and assuming that will make good TV. Initially I thought that this show was just another in the same tired genre but in fact it is perhaps the exception that demonstrates the truism.

This isn’t cheap and empty eye-candy with a few jokes. Bill is genuinely interesting and interested in Vietnam, its people and its history. This is no “white saviour”, this is an intelligent and talented person genuinely interacting with the people he meets and showing appropriate respect to laws and customs.

Yes, there are sarcastic moments (the naff jokes re fibre glass flamingos, the madness of Train Street) and there is humour (cheese ice cream) but there are also unscripted moments (the go-kart, stumbling up the mountain) and real pathos (the offerings to his mother and son Luke).

It is all these moments that tend to put the other travel shows in the shade, with their superficiality and limp jokes. If all celebrity travelogues were this good then the Guardian article would be redundant but the sheer quality and care put into this show just demonstrates how poor the rest are.

House of Earth and Blood

2026-04-02T00:00:00+01:00

Sarah expects a lot of her readers here – plunging us straight into a bustling metropolis with lots of characters and a complex administrative structure based on a wide variety of creatures with a long history of alliances and animosities. And it never really lets up. We pick up the necessary backstory (over ten thousand years of it) as we go along but the head long rush never subsides.

We mainly follow one-time party girl but now mentally and physical scarred gallery assistant Bryce, but switch to other points of view when necessary. Bryce is half human, half Fae which complicates an already complicated inter-racial structure, especially once we find out who her father is.

She ends reluctantly partnered with Hunt, an actual fallen angel in servitude for trying to lead a rebellion a long time in the past. It’s a complex set up, but it works, and the mutual antagonism is gradually replaced by grudging respect as they are forced to investigate some gruesome murders that seem to link to a stolen artefact, and through that to the very foundations of the society itself.

There’s a real sense of place and depth to this very real city and the characters in it. Sarah clearly has put a lot of thought and effort into this and nowhere in its 800 does it flag, or even give the reader a bit of a break!

Well worth reading and I’m looking forward to the next volume.

Short Reviews 26Q2

2026-04-01T00:00:00+01:00

Being a list of brief notes on other culture consumed over the this quarter of the year that I either abandoned or don’t feel needs a longer discussion.

Outcome- Apple TV.This seems to be a vehicle to let some big movie names practice their acting skills in roles outside their comfort zones. In some cases, like Keanu Reeves this is done really well but Jonah Hill plays a deeply irritating agent - it may well be a devastating take-down of the archetype but most of us don't deal with agents like that so it will largely pass us by and since Jonah was both producer and director there was no-one to tell him what an annoying screen presence his character was. Abandoned because of him!

Storied Life of A.J.Fikry

2026-03-30T00:00:00+01:00

An earlier work than the rather over-hyped “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” and much smaller in scope. This is a fairly straight/forward story of a bookseller on a holiday island in the North Eastern US and a small group of his friends and family.

AJ is a bit grumpy and suffers the tragic loss of his wife but gradually rebuilds life and community thanks to the arrival of young girl, abandoned in his bookstore. Assisted by his sister, her author husband, the local police chief and a publisher’s representatives we watch the girl, Maya, grow up in a bookstore.

This is a gentle story – there is certainly tragedy but nothing of horror, and there is plenty of humour and human interest.

It makes a good case for the value of bookstores, and of reading, writing and publishing books without ever becoming a great book itself. It kept me engaged, moved at the end and the overall message was positive. Not earth shaking but a pleasant enough read for a summer vacation perhaps.