Reading. Watching. Listening.

Watched: Dinner At Eight (1933) Oh, I love the sharpness of 1930s comedies and this is one my favourites. Everyone is wonderful in it but my favourite is Marie Dressler who has one of the greatest closing lines in the movies. Jean Harlow has just the right mix of hardness and glamour. It’s a treat from start to finish.

Reading: I read this interview with Nora Roberts in the New York Times. An excellent review of her life and work but, being the New York Times, they do have to include a digression on Language We Would Never Use Nowadays. This time it’s plundering tongues. Still, once they get that over with it’s a very satisfying piece. Link or Archive Link

I also read the new Britney Spears biography. I had low expectations for this (not every celebrity biog can be Demi Moore-as-written-by-Ariel-Levy calibre, intimate and gruelling) but whoever Britney’s ghostwriter was they’ve brilliantly structured each chapter into biographical mini-essays centring around the control and abuse of women’s bodies. And there’s the anger. She’s so angry and, if even half of what she says happened to her is true, she has every right to rage. Amazon Link

Listening: I’ve been listening to the Private Eye Podcast because it’s funny and it’s about politicians in a country that’s not my own so I can enjoy the absurdities without the accompanying feeling of “these are the people my taxes are paying for?”. Ideal. And who doesn’t love a joke about Boris Johnson?