Author Archive: Lesley Jakobsen
The Natural History of Ghosts
The Natural History of Ghosts: 500 Years of Hunting for Proof (Roger Clarke) The Sunday Times review grab on the cover tells us that this book is “beautifully written, lithe, complicated and hugely rewarding”. “Beautifully written”. Two words that send a shiver down the spine. “Lithe, complicated and hugely rewarding”. Promises, promises. Unfortunately, the book is lithe and complicated in that there is no readily discernible structure to the context. “A Natural History” will only be hugely rewarding to those who wish to read or reread a telling of famous ghost stories – The Angel Warriors of Mons*, the Bell Witch case (although this one…
Continue Reading →Ruben Guthrie
(Written & Dir. by Brendan Cowell) (2015) One gets the strong feeling that the writer and director thought of the name “Ruben Guthrie” first and couldn’t or wouldn’t let it go. The eponymous main character (played well by Patrick Brammall) is called by his full name more often than not in the short, slight 93 minutes of this first, clearly somewhat autobiographical, feature by Cowell. At first Ruben Guthrie suffers badly from the same problem as does Fury Road – male protagonist has model girlfriend. All she has to offer is looks. Insulting and annoying to this audience anyway. Naturally…
Continue Reading →Cold Cream: My Early Life & Other Mistakes
(by Ferdinand Mount) (2008) It will come as no surprise to the reader that the “cold cream” of the title is the Pond’s cold cream used as a cure-all by the writer’s mother when he was a child. Somewhat less commonplace is the probable reason for Mrs Mount’s adherence to the unpleasant ointment – she earned a lifetime’s supply as a result of having spruiked it before her marriage – “Lady Julia Pakenham says she owes her flawless complexion to Pond’s Cold Cream”. Lady Julia, the youngest daughter of the 5th Earl of Longford KC, married Robert Francis (“Robin”) Mount who, when at…
Continue Reading →Chiswick at the Gallery
Visit most decent art galleries across the world and as you empty out of the rooms, especially those of a special exhibition, you’ll find a gift shop, a cloak room, and a bad crowded café. Go to the top floor and you might find a decent restaurant, and in Sydney, most likely, a view. So it proved when we went to “The Greats” at NSW Art Gallery. Canny punters book, so we had to make do with a communal table but this was no problem – The Varnished Culture‘s table talk is invariably PC when in public and everyone, especially nearby, seemed…
Continue Reading →Books About JonBenét
What happened to her? (Picture thanks to Associated Press)
She was the beloved daughter of wealthy parents, and the only little girl in the world with that name. And we all know how things ended, only we don’t. The two best books on the subject, to date, are Lawrence Schiller’s Perfect Murder, Perfect Town and Detective Steve Thomas’ JonBenét, Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation. There’s no need to outline the events which are known, or to detail the weirder aspects – the “War and Peace” of all ransom notes, the $118,000 ransom, the playwright across the road who wrote it all before it happened, the false confession, Burke’s voice on tape when it…
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