Miranda Sawyer was a music journalist in the 90s and she spent a lot of time with bands; interviewing, hanging out, watching gigs and at festivals. She therefore brings a personal perspective to the characters and the music. The writing style is entertaining and evocative. She chose 20 songs and for each chapter, she writes about the band, with particular focus on that song. The key word from the title is ‘beyond’, because although there are the usual suspects, it includes some you might not immediately consider as Britpop, such as PJ Harvey, Radiohead, Underworld and Tricky. Britpop, it transpires, doesn’t mean much at all. Even the most famous bands associated with it did not call themselves Britpop, so it was really a convenient term for the media to use. The book celebrates the years when indie rock and pop music by British (or Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish) groups dominated the charts and the papers. It’s not an exhaustive account of the era and is selective about the groups (for a more comprehensive survey, read I Was Britpopped, and for a wider context, read Don’t Look Back in Anger). I think it’s most valuable for its discussion of women in music, in the context of the magazine culture of the time.

Published by John Murray, 2024.

Not to be confused with Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars by David Hepworth.

The film follows the book quite closely, with some changes to the plot at the end, plus more graphic violence. I thought Amanda Seyfried was very effective in the role of Nina, the apparently-crazy wife. She hadn’t deliberately put on weight though, as her book counterpart did. I really didn’t believe Sydney Sweeney in the character of Millie, the housemaid who has been in prison. For a start, she had fantastic teeth for someone imprisoned for a decade and who is living in her car. She furrowed her brow a lot in an irritating way, but otherwise her acting seemed wooden. Brandon Sklenar was unconvincing at first as Andrew, but I kind of warmed to his acting, the more terrible his character became. Cece, the little girl, was not so vulnerable as in the book and she had a creepy dolls’ house which gives us a hint that something isn’t right. The role of gardener Enzo was reduced, so that whenever he turned up, I realised I’d forgotten he was even in the movie. The fancy house was perfect though, just as you might imagine it from the book.

If you’re a fan of the book, you’ll probably like the film!

Image credit: https://www.fandango.com/the-housemaid-2025-242549/movie-photos-posters, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81086373

I wasn’t going to get this live album… but then I heard some of the songs and thought they were incredible, so here we are! Recorded in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2024, this is the soundtrack to the documentary film Unshatter, which I haven’t yet seen. The film, named after a song (which isn’t actually on the soundtrack), chronicles the return of Linkin Park and includes some performances from this concert. Unlike a studio album, I don’t need to listen to it repeatedly until my opinions are formed, because I already know the songs! The soundtrack does not include all the songs from the concert, however I checked out the performances which are on YouTube and the only song I would’ve added is ‘New Divide’.

The From Zero songs are sounding fantastic, especially ‘Casualty’, ‘Heavy is the Crown’ and ‘Over Each Other’. Some of the classics sound great with Emily’s vocals as well, such as ‘Papercut’, ‘Faint’ and ‘Somewhere I Belong.’ I liked that ‘Lost’ was turned into a piano ballad, but it was too short.

I’m not keen on the versions of ‘Numb’ and ‘In the End’, because they’re mostly sung by the crowd. I’m not faulting the crowd; they are super-keen and energetic. I just don’t really like to hear less of the singers and more of the crowd. It’s acceptable to me for the odd line of a song; for example on this album we have the ‘I won’t be ignored’ scream on ‘Faint’, some of the first verse of ‘Waiting for the End’, a little of ‘What I’ve Done’, and the last line of ‘Leave Out All the Rest’. When it comes to the most iconic anthems, they’re the guaranteed singalongs, they mean a lot to people and are important to the band’s legacy, but I prefer to hear the singers giving it their all, with the crowd singing along, rather than encourage the crowd to take over. I’d skip the songs, but the album wouldn’t feel complete without them, and if you have been following my blog for a while, you’ll know I’m a completist.

I really like the album and I hope the band are going to have a well-earned rest from touring and promoting; but an album of new songs would, I am sure, be eagerly anticipated by many fans.

There is really a lot packed into this book and I was very impressed with it. He discusses his family history, his childhood in Beirut, the experience of moving to America, activism in the Armenian community there, the effect of 9/11 on attitudes towards immigrants, and how he worked for family businesses before finally realising he wanted a career in music. We also learn about the turbulent dynamics between the band members, particularly himself and Daron, and then his other projects, including solo albums, collaborations and film composing. There are some interesting bits of information here and there, such as almost signing Muse to his label in the US, deciding not to play in Turkey due to its denial of the genocide (years later, they decided to play there, but were prevented), and how the song ‘Aerials’ resulted from Serj getting into transcendental meditation. It may not have everything you might want to know, but after all it’s described as a memoir ‘of sorts’.

Published by Headline, 2024.

I had many issues with this book, but I won’t list them all, because there are some essay-length reviews on Goodreads which discuss them better than I can. The two most pressing problems for me were the length (over 600 pages) and the confusing plot. I expect it all made sense in Philip Pullman’s mind, but I don’t think it translated into the book. I wasn’t sure what the whole point of the story was, except for the message that we must keep using our imaginations and telling stories to stay human. It seemed like an echo of The Amber Spyglass but with a lot of repetitious dialogue and no clear resolution. I found the book in the YA section in the library, but it was really an adult book. The characters are all adults, there is swearing, a lot of gruesome violence, and complicated ideas about the economy, capitalism, philosophy, etc. There are precisely two things I admired about the book. One is that there is a kingdom of gryphons. The other is that one of the characters is named after a victim of the Grenfell Tower fire.

In summary, I don’t recommend the Book of Dust trilogy at all, but at least I’ve completed it!

Published by Penguin and David Fickling, 2025.

In summary, the Peanuts are a nice ‘treet’ for vegans and I hope they continue to be made. You could say I’m ‘nuts’ about this snack!

(This review is not endorsed by the company!)

Note: may contain traces of milk, other nuts and gluten. Always read the packet.

Several elements of the book make it appealing to me. There are so many memorable characters, such as Miss Havisham, Estella, Mr Jaggers, Wemmick and his Aged P, Mr Pumblechook, Magwitch, Herbert Pocket, and of course Joe Gargery. The writing is marvellous, changing effortlessly between tones, ensuring the book is a lively mixture of comical, tragic, gothic and crime thriller. Pip is a flawed character and is perhaps not very likeable when he is grown up, but at least he recognises his shortcomings. The novel is set a few decades before it was published, so there is also commentary on what has changed, giving it a nostalgic air. What I find interesting is that the ending is ambiguous, when Pip and Estella finally meet again after many years. It’s not a happy ending as such, but there is a hint of hope. The appendix of the book gives the original (unhappy) ending, which is apparently the one he would have chosen, if not persuaded to change it.

First published in 1861. This edition in 2008, edited by Margaret Cardwell, introduction and notes by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst.

The title of the book is a little misleading, I think, because it implies their careers are over, when the majority of them, despite setbacks with addiction, break-ups or other troubles, have continued to release music, perform, go into other arts or media, or even appear on reality shows! So they are still famous, just not in the prime of their pop era. The book is well-written and makes a lot of good points about fame, the music industry and creativity, using connections between the pop stars to emphasise these. The chapters are grouped into sections with themes, such as one-hit wonders, difficult albums, legends, and scandals. I didn’t expect the book to be great, based on the blurb and uninspiring front cover, so I was surprised how good it was. I found it amusing, thought-provoking and even uplifting.

Published by Headline, 2022.

I now judge a book by its cover, not only to work out if it’s the kind of genre I would read, but as an indication of the author or publisher’s quality and ethics. If the cover is quite obviously made with AI, I’m going to assume that the writing is AI. Even if it’s 100% human written and it may be a great story, you’ve gone for the easier, cheaper, visually disturbing option of artificially generated art, instead of paying a human to use their own creativity and talent, or create a cover yourself if you’re into art and graphic design… so I’m not going to read your book.

I have never, as far as I’m aware, read or promoted any book which has used AI for creative purposes. Depending how the industry develops, I worry that at some point, it will be unavoidable and I’ll either be unaware, or be unable to tell the difference. If only we could turn back time and stop the technology being released to everyone.