When I was young, my mother and her boyfriend (later, my stepfather) used to pack me and all my younger siblings off to the theatre for the entire day on weekends. There, we watched films, sometimes the same film multiple times, sometimes several films before the first was repeated (you could buy one ticket for a particular film back then, but stay and watch all the following films).
My siblings often fell asleep — the youngest was only 2 or 3 — and as I “babysat” them, I watched some of the films that still have a huge emotional impact on me: Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, as well as any and all horror films with Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Vincent Price. I wanted to go live with Mary Poppins or in Oz, adored Patrick McGoohan (especially in The Three Lives of Thomasina and The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh), and, at the age of 5 or 6, fell madly in love with Peter O’Toole.
I still love those films, those actors, and many, many others besides. In fact, the only thing I love more than films is books. But my love of books deserves to have its own newsletter commentary…
Here are some of the articles I’ve been reading and sharing on my social media accounts. As always, the best place to reach me is
Twitter, but you can also contact me via my blog/website:
The Alexandria Papers. I’m on
Facebook,
Pinterest, and
Instagram, too, but not as often as I’m on Twitter (I’m there every day). Talk to you soon!