The jury is out these days on D H Lawrence, and yet he was as much a part of the Swinging Sixties as Mary Quant or Christine Keeler, and it’s quite entertaining to see them in the same sentence. Rightly so it would seem, as there are those who think the trial over the publication … Continue reading Writers in covers: D H Lawrence
Roddy McDowall’s 1970 retelling of the Ballad of Tam Lin, like its counterpart The Wicker Man, had a troubled release and was destined to rot away in a vault. It was Martin Scorsese who rescued and restored a print for VHS in the 1990s. A delayed release in the early 70s (as The Devil’s Widow) … Continue reading Rediscovered film gem: Tam Lin (1970)
When I first discovered Josephine Poole, it was through Billy Buck (published as The Visitor in the US) and Moon Eyes which I wrote about here and here. Not long after reading those two ‘books for young adults’ I found Yokeham, which I’d read was her ‘first novel for adults’ (it’s not, that was The … Continue reading Entertaining Josephine Poole
Brief clip from undiscovered episode involving a disused World War Two observation post, where Mrs Peel is confused by what appears to be a sheet of ice, only it isn’t. Continue reading Weimaraner as Emma Peel
There’s a peculiarly British film and TV genre of the late 60s and early 70s which you could call ‘Pagan Village Conspiracy’. Nowadays, everyone recalls 1973’s film The Wicker Man. It’s legendary, as much a part of folklore’s history as Frazer’s The Golden Bough. Viewed from the 21st century, the setting for these stories is … Continue reading Robin Redbreast – villages that bite
Summer holiday: all those unnecessary possessions spilling from boxes and cupboards and wardrobes and drawers reduced to camping stuff and a couple of bags of clothes. And nothing is missed, we’re just here in the present. There’s a lesson there I’ve patently failed to notice, because back home I’m shuffling a new hoard around and … Continue reading Holiday haul
Today Whistles in the Wind is pleased to offer a ‘guest editor’ spot. I’m handing over now. Here she is… Although I’m tempted to Instagram the half loaf of multigrain bread I ‘lifted’ off the breadboard yesterday, and thus brag of my sophisticated lifestyle options, I’ve chosen instead to share a clip from one of … Continue reading Le Chien (1962)
Following on from the Billy Liar post and the theme of escape in the sixties, here’s playwright Shelagh Delaney talking about Salford in 1960. All of it is great, but from around 8.30 minutes in she starts to talk in particular about restlessness and the conflict of belonging/not belonging to a place. It’s again suggesting … Continue reading Shelagh Delaney, 1960
Tom Courtenay as Billy Liar (1963) Is Billy Liar really 50 years old? It’s one of the key sixties films catching Britain at a time of transition, mirrored by Billy’s dreams of escape from small town doldrums to something more ‘swinging’. In the early 1990s there was a wonderful BBC weekly retrospective of the era, … Continue reading Off to Ambrosia with Billy Liar
Pen and ink illustrations by Bill Greer for Boris Pasternak’s poems from Doctor Zhivago. They were issued as a single volume in 1969, and followed David Lean’s film from the year before with Julie Christie and Omar Sharif. The stills are taken from Lean’s film. I remember Doctor Zhivago being screened on a Sunday evening … Continue reading Winter in July – Dr Zhivago and Pasternak’s poems, 1968
WHISTLES IN THE WIND 