Jazzjet

John Chilton's bookshop was in the street behind where I used to work and opposite Great Ormond Street hospital. It was a great place to visit. Apart from loads of secondhand jazz and blues books it had tons of back copies of magazines like Jazz Monthly and Jazz Journal. There was a wonderful musty bookstore smell about the place as well. I seem to recall that John's wife (Theresa?) ran the place most of the time.

The only other thing in the Erridge/Orwell comparison is the trip to the Spanish Civil War which both Erridge and Orwell made. I'm not too sure about the Crowley/ Trelawney comparison. Crowley was a much more evil and dangerous personality than Trelawney seems to be. On the general point of these character models I'm sure the inspiration that Powell took was a lot more nuanced than it appears with parts of the characters and personalities known to Powell combined to form the characters in the novels. Didn't Powell say something about fiction invoking a higher truth than biography? Thanks again for the Hilary Spurling recommendation by the way. I managed to get hold of a cheap used copy via Amazon.

Good to hear from a fellow fan, Larry. My comments on character models was actually based on a page of the Anthony Powell site, eg George Orwell as Erridge/Lord Warmisnster, St. John Clarke as John Galsworthy etc. However, I'm sure that any comparisons are far more nuanced than that. Dr Trelawney is supposed to be based on Alesteir Crowley which I find unlikely. Hugh Walpole is an interesting possibility for St John Clarke. As you say he's largely forgotten figure today although I've recently got hold of some of his books which I haven't read for ages and of course his 'Rogue Herries' is a great companion if you ever visit the Lake District. Thanks for the tip about Hilary Spurling's book. Here's the site : Models for characters in Anthony Powell's Dance To The Music Of Time

That is good news. I'm currently only on Series 2 on DVD so quite a lot to look forward to.

I've just finished Anthony Powell's 12 volume masterpiece, 'A Dance To The Music Of Time', my equivalent of tackling 'War And Peace'. It's a social chronicle of British middle and upper class life between the late 1920s and the late 1960s. Parallels include the novels of Evelyn Waugh and Henry Green and even Proust, although Powell is much less introspective. Part of the fun is identifying the real life models on whom the fictional characters are based. These include George Orwell, Lord Beaverbrook, John Galsworthy and many others. I can now look forward to the Channel 4 late 90s TV adaptation which attempted to squeeze it all into four 2-hour episodes. My next challenge is to read C.P. Snow's 'Strangers and Brothers' sequence from the beginning (I've read a few novels, eg 'The Masters' but never the whole thing). Only 9 novels so it should be a piece of cake!

Classic indeed although P.G. Wodehouse runs him close, albeit in a lighter vein.

This is nothing to compared with all the Scandinavian TV series so popular nowadays. Nearly every reputable Danish or Swedish actor seems to appear in all of them.

Same here. Power was out from 2am until 4pm. Good job I was going out as we have sleet and snow at the moment, not too common an experience in Cornwall at least not in recent years. Storm Imogen was pretty awesome here although I didn't manage to get to the coast where waves were up to 60 feet in some places.

I remember seeing Tales From The Crypt when it first came out. Those were the days when you got two feature films for your ticket and could go into the cinema at any point so you often saw the end of one film and sat through the whole programme so you could eventually see the beginning! Recently bought Tales From The Crypt (Joan Collins!) on DVD.

Two new names to me and the themes sound right up my street so thanks for the tip. I've recently finished Charles Cumming's 'The Trinity Six' and enjoyed it very much. This one has a more modern setting but the background is the world of Burgess, McLean, Blunt etc. He's written several other novels in the espionage genre so I will definitely try those. Another fairly recent read is 'Dominion' by C.J. Sampson. This is one of those novels set in a world where Britain has surrendered to the Nazis but is very atmospheric with lots of period detail. Again, highly recommended.

'Sat 9.00 +: Record Review - the programme that usually reviews classical releases has a section on recent folk releases. Sadly no Oxford don plumily reviewing all the recordings of 'Barbara Allen' in order to tell us which recording we need to be seen admiring. ' Reminds me of that joke about how many folk singers it takes to change a lightbulb. Five - one to change the bulb and the other four to sing in four part harmony about why the old one was better. Seriously, thanks for the information about the programmes. I'll have to try and catch them via iPlayer.

That was one of the funniest series ever with some great comic characters. I've just ordered Season 1 but other series are not easily available over here.

Musically, at least, it's arguable that the 80s was the last decade that was recognisably distinct in its sound and style. I find it very hard to distinguish any popular music from the 1990s and the 2000s up to date and to pin it down to a specific period. Maybe this view could be extended to social history and culture as a whole. Of course, the unknown is whether we are too close to the recent past to distinguish periods in this way. However, I recall that it was very clearcut in the 80s when you listened to music of the 60s or 50s.

I agree about the way the 70s are presented. Apart from anything else colourful hippie fashions only started to spread across the country (from a relatively small clique in London) in the very late 60s and well into the 70s, ie the 60s actually happened in the 70s. It's true that there was also a lot of orange, brown and beige about and maybe that tends to create a limited spectrum. My guess is that most of these recreations are put together by people who weren't even around in the 70s and that they lazily tend to copy each other in perpetuating essentially a myth.

Nice clip. I seem to recall that Donovan was one of the beatniks around this period. I'm not sure whether he was one of the originals but he was definitely there during this period. There's a good book by Rupert White called 'Folk In Cornwall' that covers this period and much else in great detail.

I'm sort of enjoying 'War and Peace' but I think it suffers by being squeezed into 6 one hour episodes. I've never read the book and it took me quite a while to get a grip on who the various characters were, without any of the usual exposition.

I've caught up with 'Deutschland 83' - quite promising and it resonates with me as I was heavily involved with CND back in 1983 so some of the themes are very nostalgic. Of course, now you're a dangerous madman if you believe in that kind of thing. The first episode of 'Spin' was very good. A slick political conspiracy thriller. Looks very promising.

Not yet. I've got so much stacked up that I store up these series for future viewing.

I quite like Arne Dahl. Halfway through the second series but still to catch up with the first. I agree, not as gripping as The Bridge or The Killing. There was another series either just before or after Arne Dahl was broadcast here - Beck. Downbeat (as usual) but good stories and characterisations. I enjoyed it more than Arne Dahl. The thing with these Swedish series is that you can't really temporarily switch off or catch up with you emails etc as you'll end up lost in just a few minutes. There's a new series on More 4 tonight (2200 UK time) called 'Spin' which seems to be from the same team as the excellent French series, 'Spiral'.

Recently finished 'Life After Life' by Kate Atkinson. Probably the best novel I read in 2015. about a woman who lives through the most turbulent events of the 20th century, including the London Blitz, and which asks: What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? She has also written some detective stories featuring Jackson Brodie which I have yet to try but, on the evidence of 'Life After Life' should be good.

Vastly preferable to Dominic Sandbrook's books is David Kynaston's excellent 'Tales Of A New Jerusalem' (1945-1979) series which is up to about 1962 so far. Much more depth and insight, and although it has yet to reach the mid 60s it has all the signs of being the definitive work on modern British history.

The Peter Kay Car Share series is great, one of the best sitcoms for ages. The 'misunderstanding' about dogging was brilliant and there are some great sight gags with funny shop names etc. The radio station, Forever FM, was specially created for the show and is enjoyably naff.

Very nice. Supports my theory that 'the Sixties' actually happened in the 70s. It's also unusual, I would have thought, to hear a drum solo - and a lengthy one at that - on a folk track. I can't think of any other examples. Sorry. My comment above referred to the Oberon track.

Pretty much the staple diet and clothing choice in some parts of Cornwall, particularly Penzance (twinned with Narnia). Bridget St John was another singer from that era who disappeared after her initial success, in her case emigrating to Greenwich Village. She made 2 or 3 LPs for John Peel's Dandelion label, the first one with the help of John Martyn if I remember correctly.

Shelagh McDonald's 'Stargazer' is one of my all time favourite songs. Her albums included support from the likes of Richard Thompson and Keith Tippett. She disappeared from the scene in the early 70s, apparently after a bad LSD trip left her with a ruined voice. She did make a comeback though a couple of years back. Mark Hollis's solo, self-titled album is well worth hearing. He was a member of Talk Talk, the 80s band who had a few pop hits like 'It's My Life' and 'Life Is What You Make It'. They took a sort of left turn in the late 80s and their albums 'Spirit of Eden' and 'Laughing Stock' are worth seeking out, a mixture of experimental, ambient, folk and jazz.. Sometime band member and producer, Tim Friese-Greene is the great grandson of pioneer photographer and inventor William Friese-Greene.