Author: Dom

Never thought I’d be quoting Ricky Gervais

Did anyone catch Derek on Sky last month? I haven’t been so keen on Ricky Gervais’ recent stuff (An Idiot Abroad and Life’s Too Short), but Derek really hit the mark with me. Heartwarming, sphincter-clenchingly funny and desperately sad.

derekThe players are faultless, especially Kerry Godliman who is now my favourite actress (sorry, Milla).

One memorable scene was a near-monologue from the superb David Earl who plays Kevin, the hopelessly unattractive layabout. With tears in his eyes he tells us that he’s a failure – not because he didn’t succeed, but because he didn’t try.

Might be something worth remembering when you’re looking at your next agent rejection letter: You haven’t failed – not until you stop trying.

Recommendation: Blonde Roots by Bernadine Evaristo

This isn’t really a book review, as I read Blonde Roots a few years ago and had cause to revisit it again recently for some background reading on slavery. I’d quite forgotten what a little gem this book is.

blonde_roots

It’s a kind of ‘alternate history’ novel that tells the story of a young girl taken from her home to work the plantations in a foreign land. But in a rather clever twist to history as we know it, Ms Evaristo has spun things around. In her world of the nineteenth century, it is the Africans who are kidnapping Europeans by the thousand and transporting them to work their farms and plantations.

Mind-blowing stuff.

The story is beautifully written and told without frills or compromise. After a while you forget that this isn’t the world as we know it, but still remain struck at the injustice and cruelty of the slave trade and how it demeans both the sufferers who endure it and the slavers who profit from it.

A great book which I’m glad to have rediscovered.