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Perhaps, although documentaries are reasonably popular on British TV as they have a tradition of being high quality. Whenever people moan about television not being good I always remember a quote by the Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski “What is the difference between films made for...

According to the official figures the first show was watched by 1.2 million people, about 5% of the audience watching TV at that time. Not much, but not too bad considering it was on at the same time as ‘Little Britain’ currently the most watched comedy show and ‘Doc Martin’ a popular...

Actually I'm lapsed Church of England.

Everything? Really? From what I read, that thread contained a handful of insightful posts and a C&P review from a newspaper; all lost in a sea of ‘aren’t we so much smarter than the dumbos for being able to see through this crap’ posturing. Never read 'The Alchemist' btw, doesn't come across...

I've got too big a TBR pile as it is (about 50) so I'll be too late for this one. However if Master & Margarita wins the February vote, count me in...

I've not read Lolita yet, although I'm now feeling inspired, but wanted to take the opportunity to congratulate people on an interesting discussion. Bonus points to Peder for a stylish, and all too infrequent, use of the word Egad. Gadzooks and other such sayings, K-S

It is indeed Il Postino Not quite sure what Siskel & Ebert meant by "Two thumbs way up!" though, seems a rather unfortunate choice of phrase...

Thanks, I shall start with Ibsen and work from there. I'm sure if I use your recommendations along with the interweb and a couple of the Amazon Norwedian must-read lists I can find my way around. I've been looking for another countries literature to wander around for a while. As Russian...

I've been pretty lucky with my purchases this year, but ones that passed me by were: Jean Cocteau - The Miscreant (All the more disappointing as I'd liked Les enfants terribles) Andre Gide - Theseus (former favourite fails to impress) Drago Jancar - Northern Lights (I totally failed to...

Champollion features in a couple of episodes of the BBC Docu-Drama 'Egypt': http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/10_october/17/egypt_champ_eps.shtml This has only just been shown on BBC over here so I've no idea if and when it'll make an appearance on BBC America/DVD (if...

Which you can see in his work. Hunger is certainly held up as an early example of 'the modern novel' and is on my list of books that everyone should have read. I got sidetracked after the first act of 'A Doll's House' recently, I must find time over Christmas to read it properly. Are you...

One of the reasons I picked ‘Women at the Pump’ is the best one of all: I like it. I’d agree that it’s not his best work, but, as you pointed out, it’s written with characters that are larger than life; which for me contributed towards an overall feeling of warmth and affection towards people...

Quite possibly; but presenting Berezovsky as the former puppet master trying to get revenge was too tempting a tag line for the programme makers. However, there were hints in the programme that what Berezovsky believes and what is actually happening are not always the same. For example in a...

Just found this newspaper review of last weeks Russian Godfathers: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv_and_radio/story/0,3604,1663196,00.html The next episode is on Thursday and is about the Khodorkovski trial...

True, although it does seem to be the same few books being recommended all the time. I've not had time to think this through fully yet, but it would be nice if there were some Amazon style 'So you'd like to learn more about' threads about differing literary cultures etc. We must have some...

Yeah, I did some checking back and I do remember this now.

The acusation of links to Chechen terrorists wasn't mentioned, I don't think they're taken too seriously outside of Russia. The issue of oligarchs getting thier hands on the big utility companies and the resentment about that was mentioned briefly. I suspect this will be explored more in the...

Personally I'd like it if there was a recommendations subforum somewhere on TBF. That way we could have a thread for different countries detailing recommended authors and books etc I partly say that as the authors I like don't seem to get mentioned on TBF and I always end up making...

Well, nothing can totally prepare you for Hunger, it's a breathtaking book. But he did write several short stories which appear to use the same main character or a prototype version; namely 'A Lecture Tour', 'Jon Tro', 'Secret Sorrow' and 'The Call Of Life'. The later peice in particular seems...

A wonderful and important book, but not perhaps the best place to start with Hamsun. There are certainly one or two short stories in the 'Tales of Love And Loss' collection that prepare you for the intensity of Hunger. A-F#~king-proved!