Goodreads Review - Silver Turk (Doctor Who Audio)

Doctor Who: The Silver Turk by Marc Platt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A rather exciting Gothic style eighth Doctor Who story. It is set in Vienna of 1876. The Doctor jumps his Tardis from Lake Geneva in Switzerland of 1816 with his companion, Mary Shelly. At one of the cities entertainment halls, they come across a strange man wrapped in bandages and playing all the musical classics on violin or piano etc. The Doctor, in the audience, is instantly on alert because the being in bandages is none other than a Mondaisian Cyberman. The story begins to develop and we are all going for a grand Gothic ride. A real fun Big Finish adventure. I enjoyed it and would recommend to any Doctor Who fan.

In many ways, it is Mary Shelly living her own science fiction adventure. This makes it all the more fun to listen to. 

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Peterloo - The Movie.

I have just watched the movie Peterloo on Amazon. It was a powerful film based on the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 in Manchester. It made me angry with the powerful ruling classes of the land. 

It was a hard-hitting film showing the watcher the build-up that led to the events. I had heard of the young soldier that was at Waterloo in 1815. The young man that fought for King and country. The opening shots show the young man at the famous 1815 battle. Then we go to the opening sequence of the discharged soldier walking home to Manchester in England. We see all through the eyes of his loving family struggling against the harsh ways of the industrial revolution. This young man from Waterloo is not even given the price of transport for a journey back to Manchester while the Duke of Wellington is awarded £750,000 as a reward for his part in the battle. This young soldier's character is fictional, but he is an image of an actual soldier that was at Peterloo four years after Wellington's Grand Battle. His real name was John Lees and he was from Oldham.

I do not think the movie was appreciated too much at the box office. I do not know why, because I found it very moving. I knew something about the historical significance of the Peterloo event. There were 15 people killed including a mother and baby. (To be honest, I thought there were larger numbers) But this does not diminish the viciousness of the dreadful event. There were a further 700 injuries during the panic as the various military units waded in against the 80,000 peaceful protesters.

The film had some splendid actors with Maxine Peake, Rory Kinnear, David Bamber and many more. The problem is, I liked the movie and thought it was well presented. But I found it so angrily moving. It was too powerful in some parts. Especially, the ending. I was almost spitting razor blades.

It made my blood boil at the thought of the Yeomanry getting away with this. I wonder if it will happen again one day? I think many of our political classes would be capable of doing such a thing. During the story, we are also shown the corridors of power. Here were men with complete conviction of their own vanity. Their diabolical view of the plebiscite was extreme and very barbaric. Such vile and wicked people! The real rogues of the nation in all their finery. 

Benwick of the Fenland, Cambridgeshire.

The village of Benwick in the Fenland of Cambridgeshire. I rumble out to this place every other day via Chatteris, where I work most times. Benwick is a rather small village. If you blinked while driving through, you could miss it entirely. As one can see from the photos. The wildflowers along the bank, look very special as I drive into the little village. There are a few bins to empty and then I go to the village shop for a can of drink and maybe a chocolate bar. I can't help liking the mad and undisciplined array of flowers. There are many clusters about areas of various riverbanks too. This little one is outside of someone's corner house. On the owner's side of the fence and the outside too. It is a joy going to work in the Fenland during the summer months. Everywhere is alive with nature's wild calling. 

Back in the Fenland Garden Today.

You wake up in the morning and look out of the bedroom window at this. You have several days off and you think, "Yes, this works for me. Especially, on a day like this."

Everything is done and dusted. The winter cruise is waiting to break up the winter months. For now, it is summer and the wheat fields to the front of the house are causing me to sneeze. I think I may have mild hay fever, but it is nothing I can't bare.

Carole and I wandered down the town and bought some bird seed for the many hanging feeds etc. The only fly in that ointment is the Sparrow Hawk that knows they various Finches and Sparrows go to the feeds. I hung the feed plates in the tree to make it more difficult for the Sparrow Hawk to attack the fledgelings.  

I'm no gardener. Yet I love my garden. My wife is the gardener. I get to say what flowers I like and she seems to know about the presentation and all. In this sense, I'm lucky. When I'm at work, she potters about in the garden all day. I think she is in her element.

The front is done with a wild cascade of flowers too. I like the more wild and unconventional look. I like cosmos and cornflowers plus the many poppies. I like everything going undisciplined and mad. Nature doing its thing. 

Tranquil Hours in the Fenland Garden.

My wife, Carole, and I spent hours in the garden yesterday afternoon. I bought some beers and they were slipping down very easily. We put the world to rights with our small talk, but it did not matter. We were just enjoying the fruits of the many good things we have. Especially the nice garden on a summer evening. The dog and the cat were in on the act too. They were laying about with us. Spoke with my sons on their mobiles and went out to a few of the surrounding market towns earlier in the day. Including King's Lynn, where we had a wander over the retail parks. All nice casual meandering about Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. Then back home in time for feet up on the decking looking out at the cornflowers. I do like the cornflowers each year.