My 10 Favourite Movie Soundtracks

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The soundtrack can maketh the movie! Music and the absence of music in a film do more than set the tone, they shape how we feel about the picture. If we look at the controversial end of filmmaking "Scum" doesn't have a soundtrack and this helps bring the realism of the picture to life. However, a film like "Irreversible", which is arguably more shocking and certainly not low on realism uses tricks with their soundtrack that purposefully unnerves its audience. Below are several examples of soundtracks that either not only "made the movie", but even took on a life of their own.

Challenging Material

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Timothy Leary’s “Evolutionary Agents” is not a book you would immediately associate with Geoff Thompson’s Real Combat Method. I doubt even Leary - with his leftfield views - imagined that his lucid and controversial work would become set reading material for a class training to get certification in self-defence instruction. Yet there we all stood in a circle being questioned by Geoff Thompson, himself, about our thoughts on the work.

In truth the course was far more than a simple “hard skills” course for training how to deal with a violent situation. Most of the students who went on the course already had instructor level certification in one respected realistic combative form or another. My take on Geoff’s decision for making such books s Leary’s compulsory homework for all who attended the course was because they prompted an internal battle. This is what might be termed “Cerebral Self-Defence” or, as Geoff once put it, “Self-defence is defence against the self”.

There is nothing quite like tackling what might be called “Challenging Material”. Such material is best when it scares you and it has clearly scared others in some way. It should scare you not only because it challenges your beliefs, but because in some way it reinforces them. Geoff presented us with various books that acted as such cerebral weight training material. He did not expect us to agree with all the books in their entirety it is impossible that anyone could, given the diversity of their individual philosophies but to draw positive inspiration from each and every one of them.

Generally speaking, we were all on easy footing with books like “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin De Becker a book treated like a bible in my own self-defence class and “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl; however, it was clear that Yogananda’s “The Autobiography of a Yogi” would herald in the more controversial and abstract information. Out of these texts, Evolutionary Agents was one I found the biggest personal challenge.

Let’s get one thing straight, “Evolutionary Agents” is not, technically speaking, heavy reading. In fact, the first thing that impressed me about the book was the way its author got things moving from the start. In fact, the simplicity of the prose is quite daring. It is written as if the author was feverishly scrawling down his thoughts as they rushed into his mind, not stopping to take a breath and then rushing to the finish line. This might not be too far from the truth given Leary’s proud stance on the controlled use of hallucinogenic drugs, LSD in particular, to improve man’s capacity for creativity. In fact, he was part of a movement of controversial authors who aggressively promoted this theory and practice. The pace of Leary’s writing style is in line with his argument regarding pace and mobility - the back of his book states that it is not the survival of the fittest, but the survival of the fastest. He likes his play on language and gives an interesting definition for the “Human race” in this instance.

Timothy Leary goes to great pains to explain the direction all natural progression moves. His all encompassing philosophy sees everything as a race through time with all of us living in different time zones the progressive thinkers are living in the future and the rest are living in the past. He then gets quite deep into metaphors so deep in fact it gets a little difficult to decide where the metaphorical finishes and where the literal begins. Likewise his arguments vary from the genuinely original and creative to what suspiciously reads like “Shock for the sake of shock” statements. I am not completely dismissive of the obvious jolt tactic. Sometimes we need to go to extremes to re-set a balance. He is very much and consciously so in line with punk in this respect. However, it didn’t take long in my first reading of “Evolutionary Agents” to really feel the bite of his elitist argument. At this stage I feared that what I was reading was typical 1960s undergraduate academia at its most masturbatory. I had become aware that I was reading challenging material. 

As I read on I discovered that there was plenty to support my fears. Despite preaching the importance of mobility towards the future, there was clear and unashamed nostalgia for the values of “The Age of Aquarius”. Leary makes it clear in his writings that the greatest advancements in creativity occurred between 1960 and 1980, not surprisingly his era, and he sees California as being a migratory Mecca for all Evolutionary Agents. Of course, California was the place to be in the 1960s as far as the psychedelic movement was concerned, however, the location has also proven to be fertile ground for some of the world’s strangest cults, pseudoscience and mystical charlatans. Does Leary fall into this category?

My answer is that I don’t know, but one thing I did find despite all this was that “Evolutionary Agents” is an inspirational read. It inspires because it provokes and motivates at the same time. Like Ayn Rand, another hugely influential writer who has also been accused of being a founder of a “cult of personality”, Leary’s main focus is on developing the individual and breaking away from the conventions of society. He has fascinating metaphors to describe the insect-like castes that humans create to keep people from progressing as individuals. Looking at all human behaviour in animalistic terms is quite valid and nothing new. The great anthropologist, Desmond Morris, wrote some very accurate findings on the way humans act in a group in his “Naked Ape” and “Manwatching” books. Leary may not follow an orthodox biological route on this one, but I completely agree that humans generally follow what he calls a “hive” mentality. Those who break away from these castes are what Leary calls “outcastes” – another play on words – and are the pioneers of the future. History certainly backs Leary up on this one. Single individuals who have gone against the norm of the day and stood hard and fast to their principles are those who have affected some of the greatest changes. They have shifted the paradigms of their time and changed our perceptions.

Changing perceptions; now this is a common theme running through the discussions conducted on the Geoff Thompson course. Around the time when I was seriously considering giving up reading Evolutionary Agents or, at least, skimming it, I arrived at his “Correspondence Theory”. This actually reinforced a belief I have had for a long time that everything is connected and that it is a crime to completely break with the past. There is so much we can learn through history and valid foundations for the future are laid there. This is a fairly sound principle and makes more sense, at least on a metaphorical level, with the rest of his theories. Angela Carter Around the time I completed the Geoff Thompson instructor course I read a short book entitled “The Sadeian Woman” by the feminist author, Angela Carter. The book is perhaps one of the bravest I read in a long time. In The Sadien Woman Carter takes on Sade’s philosophy and not only draws positive ideas amid the scenes of extreme pornography that include torture, rape and a nihilistic approach to life, but actually finds the great libertine’s limit. This is no easy task. Sade is very hard reading and I don’t mean that in a “War and Peace” or “Paradise Lost” deeply profound way. If Timothy Leary’s books are written in a fast-paced style that easily pulls you along, Sade’s are long winded affairs that just seems to catalogue as many perversions and contentious ideas as possible. Having said this, his Libertine characters do have many parallels with Timothy Leary’s Outcastes and Ayn Rand’s Objectivists. After all he is presenting a philosophy that champions hedonism, like Leary, and selfishness, like Rand. Interestingly Ayn Rand has one character describe the hero of her “The Fountainhead” novel as “The Marquis De Sade of architecture”. Angela Carter does not react with a counter-argument or the condemnation that many other feminist authors have done when they discuss Sade. Instead she discusses how his heroines, Justine and Juliette, are prototypes for the twentieth century image of women. Sade’s heroine Justine, of the book of the same name, who is punished throughout her whole thankless life for trying to be virtuous, is seen as the forerunner for the inoffensive and vulnerable blondes of the media like Marilyn Monroe. Likewise Justine’s sister, Juliette, who is rewarded for her crimes of survival and indulgence, is described as the prototype for the career women of the 1980s.

“Evolutionary Agents” was the first material in a long while that exposed my personal prejudices. I don’t like to pigeonhole myself as anything, but I guess I am, roughly speaking, agnostic and sceptical in my beliefs and philosophies. I guess this has come about from often wanting to be objective, open-minded and having more than the average person’s experience with charlatans. Therefore books like Leary’s and another book on our list, Joe Vitale’s “Zero Limits” are immediate foils for me to exercise my principles and progress my thinking. The experience is never comfortable, but once you find a connection somewhere in the work – an “energy” as some might say – it becomes quite compelling.

However, it is in his play “Philosophy in the Bedroom” that Carter actually finds that De Sade will only go so far. She demonstrates that far from having the sensuality usually associated with erotic fiction it is all rather mechanical and the orgy that is mainly described by the players comes across as a sort of aristocratic parlour game regimented and anything but free. The play culminates in a scene clearly designed to derive the most shock possible the rape and torture of a mother by her daughter. However, it is during this act that Carter sees that Sade will only go so far the great libertine actually does fear genuine chaos and pulls back. It is this one crucial moment, where many a reactionary critic would have missed in their rising disgust for the horrendous acts being committed, that Carter really goes that stage further as a literary feminist. She effectively challenges Sade - a man whose work was far more sexually explicit than anything the controversial DH Lawrence would write and far more aggressively anti-religious than the Oxford university-expelled atheist poet Percy Shelley would publish - on his own terms and wins. 

During our course Geoff spoke of a short film he recently completed and was soon to be distributed called “Romans 12:20″. The film deals with that most loathed and feared of crimes in our society, child abuse, and using the particular verse from the New Testament it offers forgiveness as the only real way the abused can successfully claim revenge. Geoff predicts it will be met with opposition and that it is a controversial idea, but he believes in its worth. Keen readers of Geoff’s work will see that it has a strong connection with his autobiography “Watch My Back”, where he described the abuse he suffered as a child and his adult confrontation with his abuser. I feel it will challenge those who consider themselves to truly be Christians and perhaps spark debate on the nature of forgiveness is it another hidden example of true selfishness and even a type of positive revenge?

We need material that challenges us if we are to progress. As the celebrated martial arts and sometimes controversial self-defence instructor Mo Teague regularly says, “We need traction to move forward”. The challenge can come in many different ways, but I think it is important that it addresses an area we feel fundamentally weak about or we haven’t developed. I think this is not a million miles away from the Stephen R. Covey principle regarding empathetic listening. If we do not listen, read or face something that makes us feel uncomfortable we allow that thing to become an insurmountable obstacle. Also we allow unnecessary prejudices to feed our ignorance and handicap us from understanding more about our fears. My personal take on what stops certain people from looking into things that scare them is that they worry it will change them. This is the best reason to take on the fear. If your principles are so fragile that you fear for their strength before you have even faced the very thing that frightens you then maybe it is time you looked at those principles.

Further Reading: 











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Book Review: "Counterknowledge"

"Counterknowledge" is a portmanteau created by Damian Thompson to describe the mass of misinformation and disinformation being propagated by quack doctors, conspiracy theorists, pseudoscientists and pseudohistorians in the modern age. As the name suggests counterknowledge is the enemy of knowledge; whereas as one is drawn from research, experience and logic, the other comes from the imagination, superstition and irrational thinking. Thompson's book reveals how the blatant disregard for empirical facts and lack of rational thought seems to becoming ever more fashionable. Once the stuff of fringe "thinkers", urban mythmakers, New Age adherents, self-styled mystics and the paranoid, now counterknowledge is seeping into the mainstream and gaining ill-deserved respectability.

Pseudoscience has skipped the robust peer reviews and clinical testing that science has to endure. Now completely unscientific methods like homeopathy have found their way onto the NHS and being paid for by taxpayer's money. Aromatherapy has no basis whatsoever in modern science and its benefits have never been properly measured under controlled scientific conditions, and yet it has found its way into nearly every health spa, beauty treatment clinic or mainstream bubble bath company in the developed world. On the other side of the coin we have similar irrational thinking supporting conspiracy theories that scare people into staying away from modern medical procedures. Despite the huge weight of evidence of tremendous benefits incurred by vaccinations over the past two centuries, a wave of counterknowledge has prompted a reasonable percentage of parents from not allowing their children to take the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) jab.

The subject of conspiracy theories haunts "Counterknowledge" as it rightfully argues that they are the most popular form of pseudohistory being propagated. The book appropriately begins at a dinner party where a politician begins discussing his view that the 9/11 attacks were all part of a US government conspiracy. For a brief moment it seems that the politician's audience have become captivated by this theory. However, and to the author's relief, a rational thinker is present who is able to argue the ridiculous implausibility of a scheme. Science doesn't support any of the theories put forward for the destruction of the towers by conspiracy theories, especially not the controlled demolition one supported by the so-called "Truth" movement. As Thompson points out the Bush Administration certainly had its critics and enemies at the dinner, but few of them could shift their thinking from the president being incompetent or just plain wrong to being something resembled a James Bond villain!

Conspiracy theories are rife in our society and the flames of this weird way of looking at the world were appropriately fanned by a historically inaccurate work of fiction in 2003. Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" takes the thoroughly debunked research of pseudohistory, "The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail", and creates a thriller comprising of secret societies, hidden messages in works of art and a hidden truth that the heart of Christianity. Thompson rightfully puts the real history of HBHG and subsequently "The Da Vinci Code", which has its fictional story prefaced with a "fact" about "The Priory of Sion". He leads us, as Tony Robinson did in his documentary "The Real Da Vinci Code" and David Aaronovitch did in "Voodoo Histories", back to a work of alternative history created by Gérard de Sède, with the collaboration of the draughtsman Pierre Plantard in the 1940s to '60s. "The Priory of Sion" has been proven and even admitted by its creators to be a hoax created in around 1956, not the "real organization" of 1099 that Dan Brown claims in his novel's "factual" preface.

Thompson links in another important principle found in Dan Brown's book to the thinking behind counterknowledge. He demonstrates this in Brown's hero, the renegade professor Robert Langdon whose method for studying history involves making giant leaps to connect various events even when there is no sufficient date to support these claims. Such an approach is, of course, very much in line with the conspiracy theorist, but it is also in line with the methods of the hyperdiffusionist. And it is the area of hyperdiffusionism that Thompson should be most applauded in drawing attention to. This is the belief that a superior civilization is really responsible for the creation of the architecture and society of other previously thought to be indigenous civilizations across the globe. One example of hyperdiffusionism is the theory that the Chinese discovered the Americas and brought civilisation to them. This, Thompson argues is another growing form of pseudohistory and it is becoming more and more prevalent in the mainstream.

Thompson argues that there are a lot of reasons for the emergence of counterknowledge, but sees a lot of it stemming from the rise of postmodernism. It's something I had never considered before, but having now read Richard J. Evans's excellent 1997 book "In Defence of History" I can see where he is coming from. Much of the propagation of counterknowledge comes from celebrities and postmodernists. However, it has also become the unforeseen by-product of political correctness. Thompson rightfully points out how religious freedom and tolerance has allowed the teaching of creationism in some schools and the right for students not to attend classes that teach evolutionary theory on the basis of their religious beliefs. Thompson himself is a Catholic, the editor of a Catholic newspaper for that matter, but this is never something that he puts into his arguments. However, he does feel that whilst many sceptics spend most of their time combating fundamentalist Christians on Creationist theory, confronting Muslims on the issue is almost a taboo subject. This is in spite of the huge number of Muslims who do not accept evolutionary theory.

As can be imagined, "Counterknowledge" is a controversial book, even though if you break down its areas of study shouldn't really be controversial. After all, he is not the one arguing against mainstream science, history and logic as we know it. However, his critics range from obvious opponents who support the areas he attacks to even those who should be in his field. Many of the obvious opponents, particularly the conspiracy theorists who are still convinced by HBHG, often hit the author with the ad hominen argument of his Catholic faith. As previously stated, this doesn't even come into the book, although Thompson is quite vocal about his criticism of stances taken by the Vatican on creationism. Those on his side too, who have large numbers of atheists and agnostics, can also feel uncomfortable about this fact. I see it as rather refreshing. In this time where creationism has become such a loud talking point, it is worth remembering that not only did a large number of Anglicans support Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, but that the Catholic Church's current stance acknowledges it as do most rational Christians, including the Church of England.

Another common criticism from fellow sceptics comes the fact that book is quite brief, despite covering quite a variety of topics. In this respect they are annoyed it doesn't delve deep enough. I don't see this as a handicap. There are plenty of weighty books written by the likes of Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkins, Richard Wiseman, Ben Goldacre, Christopher Hitchens and so on discussing pseudoscience and mysticism, often more in the form of collected essays rather than chaptered books. If you want to go down the historical avenues you can look do no better than David Aaronovitch's book on conspiracy theories, "Voodoo Histories", or Kathryn Olmsted's "Real Enemies" or if you want to go deeper still into the roots of the postmodern problem, Richard J Evans's "In Defence of History" is a fantastic if fairly academic read. So, there is room for a lighter introductory book. What I like about it is that unlike most of the rational sceptical books I enjoy, is it leans more towards history than science and helps to give a broader view of what is happening in our society today. Its delivery makes for a very readable insight into the nonsense thinking that is creeping into our education systems, local bookstores and even at government level.

Damian Thompson's work is the perfect bait to hook the person in the street who might have half believed conspiracy theories and pseudoscience. "Counterknowledge" gives readers some straightforward and effective tools to help them lean towards rational critical thinking, science, historical theory, reason and logic.

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Child Writers Beware!

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“You are turning me into a sceptic” my wife said waving a mock accusation finger at me. As a mobile nail technician my wife comes back with a whole of host stories from her various colour clients and I just knew this was the start of just such an anecdote. Without elaborating I understood what sort of episode had occurred. A naïve person had just been told the truth about something they had invested a large degree of belief in and my wife now wondered whether or not it had been worth commenting in the first place. In the sceptical world this is called debunking. It is more popularly known as “pissing on someone’s strawberries”.

The woman looked at my wife with a beaming smile on her face. Being a mother, my wife knew that look all too well. It’s that smile that says pride like no other. A pride reserved for one’s child. “My daughter is having her short story published!” the woman announced. “Congratulations” my wife commented, as you would, and waited to hear how this came about. Apparently the young girl, aged 11, had entered a competition through her school to have her short story published in a book of collected stories. It would appear this woman’s daughter was a young girl of rare talent. But before we assign her to the ranks of child author stardom alongside Dorothy Straight, Anne Frank, David Klein and Susan Eloise Hinton, there is more to the story. My wife does not mince her words. “Are they are asking you and other parents to buy this book?” she said. Wishing to demonstrate the proof of her offspring’s literary success the woman pulled out the letter that revealed this exciting news. It was a letter she hadn’t read very well.

It all seemed good. Too good! My wife is the long suffering spouse to a writer, so she has had to read the type of letters writers receive from people who agree to publish. Rarely are prospective publishers who have agreed to take a gamble on paying for the printing and production of your unproven work reveal their joy in the acceptance letter. The letter is usually business-like and straight to the point. This wasn’t one of those letters. This was a letter that began with the great news that her daughter had been “chosen” to appear in the book and then ended with an order form. This was a letter that now wanted this woman to pay almost £15 per copy of a book that contained all the “chosen” children’s stories. My wife put the obvious rhetorical question, “I don’t mean to rain on your parade but don’t you think that this has gone out to all the parents of all the children who entered this ‘competition’”.

The initial reaction to this new development was anger. It is a typical response to anyone who has invested belief in something they so desperately want to believe and then been shown a convincing argument that throws serious doubt over said belief. Involve a person’s child and that belief can be strong. Denial is an also a common defence mechanism especially if the argument reveals that the believer has been duped in some way. My wife didn’t push the issue, being a mother herself she could empathize with the raw maternal feelings present at the time.

Vanity publishing comes in many forms. It can prey on the desperate new writer and in this time where fame has become a type of currency, the temptation to pay in order to get your name on the front of a dust jacket is more alluring than ever. There is a very legitimate way to pay for your work to get into print and some very reputable publish on demand (POD) services provide this. I know a good number of great authors, such as Geoff Thompson and Heather Vallance, who have found self-publishing to be a much more profitable avenue for their books than the traditional method. It is also worth noting that even the great epic poet, John Milton, self-published. It is debated that the lines between vanity publishing and other self-publishing services have blurred since digital media and the emergence of the internet. However, the distinction remains that vanity press derive all their profits from having writers pay for their work to be printed and have no real vested or direct interest in the authors being able to sell.

What is particularly disreputable about the type of vanity publishing described in this article is that not only is it targeted at parents via their children, but that it is not really very honest. It doesn’t seem to present much of a competition in the first place and worse still the “prize” is for the parent to pay for a book that includes their child’s work alongside countless others. Actually it probably would have cost far less to have the short story self-published by a reputable POD like Lulu.com. Unfortunately I do not have the name of this particular group, although “Young Writers” appear to offer a similar service and charge the same amount for their poetry competition books. There is a strong rebuttal offered in a comment to a reviewer on Dooyoo.com http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/services-misc/young-writers/1320735/

The next time my wife saw her client a rational cooling off period had done the woman some good. Rather than going deep into denial she saw reason. She went to her daughter’s school to investigate a little further. She spoke to her daughter’s teacher about this “competition”. The teacher was delighted to announce that all of her students had got their work into the book. Hey, what are the chances! Now who do you think might have been on a commission there?

Don't forget to check out Jamie Clubb's main blog www.jamieclubb.blogspot.com

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The Woman Writer

I have recently been in contact with Sylvia Kent, a brilliant and enthusiastic journalist who sometimes writes on the Rosaire circus family, hence our connection. However, I was recently fascinated to read about her new book "The Woman Writer: The History of the Society Women Writers and Journalists". At the risk of sounding patronizing, I find the history of women's writing an interesting and inspirational focus of study. I was drawn to the life and works of Mary Wollstonecraft through her daughter, Mary Shelley, and honoured her in my 2009 anniversaries article. Wollstonecraft is often considered to be the prototypical feminist, although I think she was far more than that. She was a philosopher, writer and intellectual working in a field that was more than dominated by males, it was a domain made virtually impossible for women to access in Wollstonecraft's time and for almost a century after her death. We tend to forget that her daughter, the Brontes, Jane Austen, Beatrix Potter and so on were the exceptions to the rule of their time. They came from more or less privileged backgrounds and had to have exceptional talent and driving force, not to mention useful contacts, to get their heads above the parapet and their work out there. Widespread literacy is a relatively new thing anyway and it was even rarer with women up until the 20th century. Women authors in the 19th century nearly always adopted male pseudonyms. Whenever I bemoan how hard it is to get a work published or, harder still, to get paid, I am often reminded that my sex has had it relatively easy when it comes to selling the craft!

The Woman Writer

The History of The Society of Women

Writers & Journalists

Author Sylvia Kent

Published 1 December 2009 at £12.99, paperback original ISBN-10 9780752451596

An account of Britain’s oldest writing society dedicated to women’s writing through its 116-year existence

· The first in-depth history of the Society of Women Writers & Journalists.

· Published to commemorate the centenary in 2010 of former president Joyce Grenfell’s birth.

· Sylvia Kent explores the lives of some of the Society’s most famous members. Illustrated with over 100 photographs.

Over a century old and still thriving. The Society of Women Writers & Journalists has just published its history which reads like a “Who’s Who” of notable women from the twentieth Century. Although the SWWJ was created for women, the concept was the brainchild of a man – a clever, enterprising newspaperman – Mr Joseph Snell Wood. Given the small number of women in journalism at the time, almost every practising woman journalist must have applied for membership.

Since its creation on 1 May 1894, the Society has attracted the company of many of the world’s most famous women writers, journalists, poets, playwrights and associated creative people involved in the wider world of literature, film, music, theatre and entertainment. Author, Sylvia Kent, delved deeply into the Society’s archives and has produced fascinating cameos of its famous members: great names of Victorian media and later are included, such as Lady Sarah Wilson who reported from Mafeking on the Boer War, Alice Meynell, who almost became the first female Poet Laureate; American playwright, Pearl Craigie our first president; Agnes Elsie Thorpe, big game hunter; Marie Stopes who campaigned for birth control; Radclyffe Hall whose book on lesbianism was banned in the UK in the 1920s though it was exceedingly popular in the USA; Constance Smedley, founder of International Lyceum Clubs, Clemence Dane actor and playwright. Latterly, the Society welcomed Elizabeth Longford, well known biographer; Nina Bawden, famous for “Carrie’s War”; Jacqueline Wilson recent Children’s Laureate, and our current Life President, Baroness Williams of Crosby.

Information on the early days of many magazines and societies makes fascinating reading. Included are: The Gentlewoman, The Lady, The Stage, Good Housekeeping amongst the periodicals and the BBC, International Lyceum Clubs, the London Press Club, the New Cavendish Club, PEN, the RNA, the Society of Authors, Swanwick Summer School, the Women’s Press Club and the Stationers’ Livery Company all had connections.

Sylvia Kent is a columnist working for Newsquest and a freelance writer. She is Archivist/Press Officer for the SWWJ, vice-president of Brentwood Writers’ Circle and a Patron of the Essex Book Festival 2009/10. This is Sylvia’s seventh book, published whilst supporting other writers, particularly in the field of local history. She is a Trustee at the Cater Museum, Billericay.

Available from all good bookshops, Amazon and The History Press.

Direct sales – telephone 01235 465577 or www.thehistorypress.co.uk

For information about talks or interviews, please contact

Kerry Green at The History Press on 01453 732 512 or via www.sylviakent.blogspot.com

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Icon Series: Indelible Marx - Groucho Marx

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“Here’s to our wives and girlfriends – may they never meet!”

Julius Henry Marx, most famously known as Groucho Marx, is perhaps the wittiest comedy actor I have ever had the pleasure of hearing or watching. His fast-wit skill, along with his other talents, was perfected with his four brothers, Chico, Harpo, Gummo and Zeppo, through the hard graft of the Vaudeville stage and then brought to big screen with the advent of "talkies" and finally ending with a hugely successful game show.

“I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception”

I first got into the humour, caricature and icon of Groucho Marx when I was 17 years old. That was some four decades after Groucho’s golden age in films. In fact, I was only 13 months old when this wondrous comedy icon passed away. It was winter of 1993 and my father had won a couple of industry awards for his work with animals in films and one of the prizes was a coffee table book on the history of films. I was drawn to this light reading and enjoyed looking up the various icons I had become interested in over the years. When it came to comedy, Groucho Marx was the only one of famous siblings mentioned. The photo showed him wooing his regular straight foil in the movies, the great Margaret Dumont. I read the short bio with interest, particularly noticing the witty quotes that were all attributed to this comic legend. I mentioned him to my business studies tutor just off hand and she immediately confessed to being a fan of the Marx Brothers, telling me more about the rest of the gang. I was about to see them all for myself before the year was out.

Icon Series: Elizabeth Bathory Revisited?

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Elizabeth Bathory, “The Blood Countess”, is often accepted in the mainstream, without question, as one of the world’s most prolific and sadistic serial killers. A 16^th and 17^th century Hungarian noblewoman, Bathory is often compared to Vlad “Dracula” Tepes, Gille de Rais and Tamerlane the Great. Women are rarely linked to recreational or sexually motivated crimes. There have been very few accepted female serial killers or, more specifically, recreational murderers, and those who have been recorded as such are often hotly debated as not fulfilling the criteria. Bathory, however, seems to tick all the boxes and her position as an almost all-powerful aristocrat who had the legal powers of life and death over many helps forward many of today’s theories on modern serial killers.