A dozen of my favourite movies for 2018 by Richard Jones

billboards

Richard Jones looks back at a busy viewing year

I think we all blinked when we read in about April or May comments from Fairfax Media film critics that with the Oscars season over we’d seen the best movies for the year. And in a way, looking back, I’d have to now agree. My Top Six for 2018 were all viewed before the end of April. It was a very ‘skinny’ few months after that although by the end of the year things were looking up again. Continue reading

Author of Frankenstein endured much grief by Richard Jones

A look at Mary Shelley (M)

MaryMary Shelley lived an extraordinary life not only because of her writing but also because of her love for the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. She fell in love with the poet when she was just 16 and ran away with him on foot and on mules through France to Switzerland. Their time together was difficult not only because he was married with a little son at the time and exacerbated through his inability to conserve his finances as they sunk into poverty. Mary lost a child to pneumonia when she, Percy and her half-sister Claire Clairmont raced through the rain and fog to evade the clutches of creditors. Continue reading