F.R. Jameson's Blog, page 12

What Alice Rackham means for me

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ALICE RACKHAM, the third of my ‘Screen Siren Noir’ series will be published October the 10th. Here I explain the genesis of the novel, and answer the question of what Alice Rackham means to me….

It’s important to me that I’m not just writing the same book again and again.

I realised with a certain dull horror, when I was in the early stages of working on EDEN ST. MICHEL that there was a real danger I was just going to do another version of DIANA CHRISTMAS. Fortunately, I corrected course and Eden became her own lovely thing. But, it made me certain in my mind that, with ‘Screen Siren Noir’ blossoming into a series, I cannot fall into the trap of repeatedly writing the same book.

As the temptation is there.

After all, each of these books centres on an actress who finds herself in some kind of danger (or creates that danger); they’re all period places set among the British film industry; there are even characters who show up in more than one novel. So obviously it would be possible to just do variants on the theme. For me to look at the formula in DIANA CHRISTMAS, come up with another actress and go through all the same moves again. But it’s important to me that I don’t do that.

And so I come to ALICE RACKHAM.

ALICE RACKHAM is still ‘Screen Siren Noir’, it still centres on an actress, it’s still a British period piece and as the first chapter makes clear, some bodies are going to be found at some point.

However, there is a difference in both the character and the setting.

Whereas the characters of Diana Christmas and Eden St. Michel are both big film stars, Alice Rackham is merely a name in movies. She’s someone you hire if you want a third or fourth lead. No, it’s not the cinema that has made Alice Rackham a star, it’s the theatre and that’s an important distinction.

As ALICE RACKHAM is a far more theatrical novel than its predecessors. One of the other characters is a theatrical actor also seemingly not well used in films anymore, while the whole is largely set in one place – the beautiful Carreras Hall in the English countryside. These characters – Londoners, all – are now outside the comfort zone of London and in another setting, which should be idyllic and tranquil, but – it becomes swiftly apparent – may be more dangerous than any city.

This is a theatre novel rather than a film novel. I suppose it’s a novel where ‘Screen Siren Noir’ takes a country break. But that doesn’t mean there’s not danger or death or the possibility of murder, it just means that all of that is locked between four grand walls and the characters cannot escape it.

 

ALICE RACKHAM will be available this October, and you can pre-order your copy now!

 

 

Red: A Natural History of the Redhead by Jacky Colliss Harvey

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This is a quite lovely, and utterly fascinating, guide to the subject of red hair. Taking in the science of red hair (how it isn’t a regressive gene at all); continuing with the startling facts that red-headed people feel pain more acutely than the rest of us and have their own scent; through how red-headed people have shown their presence in history and are regarded in art. And finally to the current day where hoary old jokes about redheads are called out for their offensiveness, and there are pride marches for red-headed people.

I love this book! It’s a genuinely interesting read, crammed full of information I’d never heard before, all written in a chatty, breezy style which teaches you without you feeling like you’re having a lesson. For such a niche subject (it’s estimated that no more than 6% of the population has red hair, maybe even as low as 4%) the book feels all-encompassing. Taking in thousands of years of history, high art, advertising, science and literature, it remains focused while touching so many bases.

I don’t have red hair myself, although have always had a thing for redheads. These days it’d be fair to say that I have a thing for one redhead – my gorgeous wife. Reading this book and seeing all the wonder that redheads have brought to the world (while suffering abuse for their beautiful hair colour) just makes me feel all the luckier.

 

I’ve written plenty of fiction about redheads, and to prove that point here’s the cover to the first in my ‘Screen Siren Noir’ series, DIANA CHRISTMAS. Intrigued? You can get your copy here…

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Who is Alice Rackham?

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ALICE RACKHAM, the third of my ‘Screen Siren Noir’ series will be published October the 10th. But who is Alice Rackham?

 

Unlike Diana Christmas and Eden St. Michel – both undeniably glamorous movie stars, whose beautiful visages sold film magazines by the thousands – Alice Rackham wasn’t quite a household name as far as cinema fans were concerned. Certainly, those who went to the theatre knew who she was. Her name alone could sell out a London production of even the most obscure play. On the stage she was this ball of energy impossible to take one’s eyes off. Regular patrons of the theatre adored her.

But she never made it in the same way in pictures.

Part of that was her looks. Not that Alice Rackham was an average looking woman, she was particularly beautiful. Almost breathtakingly beautiful if you saw her in the flesh. But on camera, her curves didn’t come across with all the sex appeal of an Elizabeth Taylor or a Marilyn Monroe (or a Diana Christmas or an Eden St. Michel). Maybe it was the roundness of her face, the way her cheekbones seemed to get lost, but on screen she appeared quite matronly. Blown up thirty-foot-high, she looked like a mum. A young mum absolutely, but a mum nonetheless.

And that was the kind of role she got in British films. It was mothers and teachers and women of authority. Not the girlfriend or the lover or a chanteuse or anyone who screams out with sex appeal, but the solid and stolid type. On stage she could be anything. There was probably no role beyond her. But on screen, she was only ever cast as the most sensible of women.

Not that that meant she wasn’t interested in cinema, she made numerous films in between her stage productions. Indeed, when we meet her in 1958, she’s playing the older sister of a would-be gangster in a new crime film. A sizeable role, but once again a bland role that captured nothing of the passion or beauty of the real her.

Those who met her in real life – particularly those men who knew her in real life – were breathlessly aware of how effortlessly and constantly sexy Alice Rackham was. In the real world, those curves of hers looked in no way matronly. They were delicious and inviting and demanding of attention.

Alice – still unmarried in her mid-thirties – was never bashful about the fact that she was a woman who liked to have fun. That she liked to have fun with the right man. Recently she’d met a young actor and the two of them were entwined in passion every single night. But Alice’s love life was always complicated, and there was forever a chance that it could blow up right into her face.

 

ALICE RACKHAM will be available this October, and you can pre-order your copy now!

Star Wars Aftermath – Life Debt by Chuck Wendig

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What does it say about me that the bits of STAR WARS: LIFE DEBT I liked best were those focused on the Empire?

I found myself drawn into this tale of those born to rule, who thought they had a right to rule, but now find that slipping away from them and desperately try to stop it. Increasingly worried individuals with no clear path on how they can stop it, and – with The Emperor himself dead – no guiding light.

Of course, I remain on the side of The Rebellion, but the parts of this book which really intrigued me are the ones with the guys in the black leather uniforms, who are flailing around in thus new universe but – let’s be fair – remain the baddest of bad guys. What does that say about me?

In my review of the last book, I said the parts I liked least were the ones concerning a minor character from the films. Here we actually upgrade to major characters from the films: Han Solo, Princess Leia and Chewie, and correspondingly I found myself letting out a sigh. They’re entertainingly enough drawn as characters here, but their chapters still felt a lot like fan-fic to me. What I really enjoy is Wendig’s ability to throw a light on other parts of this universe, to take on characters and themes that the films (even now) have never bothered with.

And that’s why I found the imperial stuff so interesting. It’s not just how inherently fascinating to me the fall of dictatorships are – and it’s not that I’ve started to bond with the Empire – it’s that Wendig has taken some cardboard bad guys and given them rationale and motivation beyond just being evil. Because, most importantly, he understands that they think they’re the good guys.

 

I also write fiction, as you can see from the banner above. If you’d like a free taster of my scarier writing though, you can pick up my collection, SOMETHING WENT WRONG & OTHER STRANGE TALES, here!

Too Close for Comfort by Adam Croft

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A British police procedural/serial killer yarn which aims to be enjoyable hokum and succeeds admirably. That might look like I am damning with faint praise, but actually. I liked that it was there to just entertain and not take itself too seriously, and I was entertained and didn’t take it too seriously.

In a fictional British city, a serial killer is murdering prostitutes. Wendy Knight has risen her way up the homicide team and enjoys being elbow deep in the investigation, but is the killer already somebody she knows?

Adam Croft – and this is an amazing fact to read – is not only an incredibly successful self-published author, he’s apparently the world’s most well-read author, and I can see from this why he has so many fans.

 

I too self-publish thrillers! And you can read, DIANA CHRISTMAS, the first of my ‘Screen Siren Noir’ series here!

 

Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Weindig

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This is the first STAR WARS novel I’ve ever read. Not out of any literary snobbery, I have read numerous DOCTOR WHO spin-off books after all, but just because – I guess – I never got around to it.

There are two reasons I’ve jumped into this one as opposed to the (I understand, extremely well regarded) Timothy Zahn books or anything else of the older books.

Firstly, as the whole of that old extended universe which existed in the books passed me by when it was a going concern, it would seem contrary of me to leap into them now. If I hated the new films possibly I would, but I don’t. In fact, I saw THE LAST JEDI the other week and liked it even more the second time. There I said it.

And secondly: I enjoy Chuck Wendig’s online present and how he’s always up for fighting for his point of view, and generally does it with good humour.

So, I was looking forward to this, and I was not disappointed.

STAR WARS films are sold as big space epics, but generally only centre around the one Skywalker family. If you think about it, they’re big and very small at the same time. But here Wendig pretty much misses out the Skywalkers, making his focus the rest of the universe and how its coping with the fall-out of this father/son battle.

What’s more, he creates really rounded characters – even among the bad guys. Especially among the bad guys. The villains here aren’t just jack-boot wearing Nazi clones. Yes they’re evil, but they are given rationale and proper motives and you come to understand why – in this great intergalactic duel – they think they’re actually the good guys.

And such is the depth of character, the epic scale and such are the new vistas this book opens up, that I found myself a bit annoyed in the end at the presence of Wedge Antilles – Denis Lawson, from the films.

Yes, his character is given more depth than his brief movie cameos, but the very fact of having him on the page seems like a hangover to the films. Wendig has blown open this universe and painted it so big and magnificent, that he should just be allowed to get on with taking his version in new and exciting directions. Using the mythos of STAR WARS, but populating it with new characters and new adventures, all without having to worry about what – say – Wicket the Ewok is up to now.

 

SOMETHING WENT WRONG AND OTHER STRANGE TALES – my frankly must read collection of scary and quirky short stories is available for free now!

Quarry’s Deal by Max Allen Collins

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In the afterword to QUARRY’S DEAL, Max Allen Collins describes it as the best of his four original Quarry novels. And, so far – with one left to read – I’d really have to agree. This is damn fine tough guy fiction, quirky and original – and even managing to skew in a romantic direction – but all without losing its hard boiled cynicism.

Here, following on from the previous books, Quarry has found himself in possession of a list of fellow hit-men. But rather than join up with them, he uses it to try and disrupt their work for his own material gain. What follows is a nerve-wracking twisting and turning take of brutal people doing brutal things.

Okay it might be easy for the reader to guess who is who (although I’ll be honest, the book does conjure one twist which took my breath away) but this is thoroughly enjoyable – and original – thriller from an expert in the genre.

 

I also write thrillers, and the first in my Screen Siren Noir series, DIANA CHRISTMAS is available now!

Dolce Vita Confidential by Shawn Levy

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DOLCE VITA CONFIDENTIAL is a book which purports to be the story of Rome in the 1950s when it was the centre of the fashionable world. A city of impossible glamour that most of the world’s cities will never get within a whisker of. (The Last Shaun Levy book I read was about London in The Swinging Sixties, but even then London had the cool without the chic). However, despite its claims, I think – as the title suggests – what Levy is most interested in is detailing the making of Fellini’s LA DOLCE VITA, but putting it into full context of the time.

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So, we get the whirl of fashion and tabloid photography that inspired the film, characters sketches of the main players in the film (and the likes of Sophia Loren, who it would be impossible to ignore) and what comes from this is a great conjuring of a long lost beautiful black and white world.

[image error]Does anyone own this record? What’s it like?

I like Levy’s prose style and its breeziness suits this subject perfectly. I have seen LA DOLCE VITA, but once and more than twenty years ago. (I’ll be honest with you, most of the Italian movies I’ve seen are Spaghetti Westerns or Giallo.) However, this is a book which seems to capture the essence Rome in the fifties, and in doing do makes me want me to ride a scooter, drink an expresso and start watching all the other Italian cultural milestones I haven’t seen but should have.

 

I also write about glamorous actresses in my ‘Screen Siren Noir’ series. If you’re interested, you can find the first book – DIANA CHRISTMAS – right here!

 

Bowie: A Life by Dylan Jones

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I’m a big Bowie fan, with the records, the T-shirts and a seeming desire to watch every documentary ever made about the man and his work. The first Christmas present my now wife ever bought me was tickets to the V&A exhibition, while for a long time I sang STARMAN every day to my tiny baby daughter. It’s a long story, but even at four weeks old I knew that she loved it too. As such I’m not quite impartial when it comes to this book. Indeed, I’m incredibly bias towards liking it.

For a Bowie fan, this oral history is a fantastically deep and immersive experience. Hearing the thoughts and recollections of Bowie himself, as well as those who knew him and sometimes even fans, it’s his story from his childhood right through to his too early death. Probably there are other books that are better for the man’s music, but it is a truly comprehensive guide to his life.

But as much as I enjoyed it, as much as I raced through it, there are undoubted flaws. His family for instance, remain distant figures within the text. Yes, we do hear a lot about his late brother who hangs like Banquo’s ghost over him, but his parents remain forever distant. Mentioned frequently, but unknown. Perhaps for his mother that’s understandable as she does seem an emotionally cold presence in her son’s life, but his dad is both portrayed as someone he was close to and – curiously – someone he wasn’t. (To quote some song or other, it’s confusing sometimes.) Undoubtedly, it’s more a problem with the form than anything else: as people’s memories and perceptions differ, and an oral history can’t help but reflect that. But it does make for a frustrating read.

(It’s a much more minor point: but his relationship with Paul McCartney seems to throughout the book go from lows to highs without any understanding as to why and how. It’s the tiniest of sub-plots I know, I don’t think thumb waving Macca and The Thin White Duke were natural musical bedfellows, but I found myself tantalised nonetheless)

[image error]Were these men friends? Enemies? Frenemies? Seriously, what was the deal?

Much like Bowie himself, it’s a book that’s sometimes pretentious, but more often than not is willing to puncture its own pomposity. It reveals a man who is intellectually curious, open to new ideas and generous with those he loved. It also conjures up a man who was capricious, bitchy, easily tired of the people around him and at times quite unpleasant. Even if it’s author clearly adores the man, it’s far from a hagiography.

I’m a Bowie fan of old and absolutely adored it. To be fair the only people likely to read this are Bowie fans too and I think you’ll adore it also.

 

Fancy reading some of my fiction? You can read the opening chapters of DIANA CHRISTMAS, the first of my ‘Screen Siren Noir’ series here!

The Love Witch (2016)

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I was entranced by THE LOVE WITCH.

But then I think most classic horror film fans will be entranced by THE LOVE WITCH.

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Yes, characters do use mobile phones and they drive modern cars, but the look, the styles, the cinematography, even the acting all seems to come straight from some early 1970s Euro-film. Seriously, if I saw this without knowing anything about it, I’d have thought – even with the mobile phones – that it was an artefact of the period. There’s the rich colour, that bright red paint blood (which Dario Argento was so fond of back in the day), and a script which doesn’t flow being performed by actors who are deliberately stilted.

A young witch (Samantha Robinson, who is superb) moves to a small town – which does, fortunately for her, already have a large witch/wiccan community – carrying a desperate need for love. Unfortunately none of the men she sets her sights on live up to her standards, none of them can cope with her passion, and – even though she’s willing to do everything for them – they end up loving her so much it takes them to death.

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Okay, having rhapsodised over the film, I now have to throw in the caveat that perhaps all that artifice lends a certain distancing effect. As I found myself admiring it, while not necessarily being emotionally involved in it. It’s a film I’m not sure a lot of people will actually enjoy. Hell, I’m not sure I enjoyed it, but I did appreciate the hell out of it. THE LOVE WITCH is definitely a film that’s staying with me, one I’d recommend and definitely want to watch again.

Fancy some free horror short stories, my collection, SOMETHING WENT WRONG & OTHER STRANGE TALES is available now!

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