Philip Pullman’s 'His Dark Materials'
To my mind, one of the main interests of Philip Pullman’s controversial trilogy is not specifically related to the books. It lies in…
The Invention of Lying
What would the world be like if no one had ever lied? Ricky Gervais's new film, The Invention of Lying, explores this question with the…
Chronicles of Heaven Unshackled
Chronicles of Heaven Unshackled examines the presence (and absence) of God in the English novel, with particular reference to Tolkien and…
Torchwood: Children of Earth
The Torchwood team have come a long way since their first rather dubious dealings with extraterrestrial invaders back in 2006. Billed as…
Doubt
‘What do you do when you're not sure?’ Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) opens his sermon with a question which…
We Need To Talk About Kevin
The colour red suffuses We Need to Talk About Kevin. Red paint is smeared across walls and car window screens, red jam oozes out of…
The Hurt Locker
We imagine war is tough. We know it puts great strain on soldiers. But is war a drug? Even ‘the supreme drug of human…
Western Literature and the Death of God
This essay attempts to do two things. Firstly, it seeks to offer a brief tour of some of the developments in western literature,…
Jumper
A review of the SF film Jumper.