Carol Naylor's REVIEW it...

                                           Still Alice. Film Review. "The art of losing isn't hard to master. So many things seem filled with the intent that their loss is no disaster." If we are defined by our intelligence, our language and articulation, then just imagine what it would be like to lose them all.  Julianne Moore, a versatile performer, dubbed the Queen of realism, won an Academy Award in 2015 for her portrayal of Alice Howland, the 50 year old linguistics' Professor from Columbia University, diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, a rare familial type that meant her children stood a 50/50 chance of inheriting the gene. Recently we have seen a surge in films showing cancer victims as well as Alzheimer victims. Take for instance "The Fault in Our Stars" or "50/50" even "The Notebook" and "Away From Her." Then, of course there's John Bayley's sa...

                      All Bones and Lies  by Anne Fine. "No-one should be expected, for love or duty or anything else, to have to put up with  having their very sense of self being chipped away minute by minute." Let's pose this one to start with. How do you find a way through the frustrations of caring for an elderly relative, especially a difficult one, so that love, or whatever we want to call it can survive to the bitter end? More relevantly, is it possible? Anne Fine thinks so. I like the way she has presented the twins, Colin and Dilys, as different as chalk and cheese, one who decides to do right by Norah whereas the other sibling remains adamant in her choice not to have any more contact with her mother, feeling bitter and angry. A five year rift seems a long time especially when the mother is old and becoming frail. Colin, as the mediator, tries to persuade his sister to make the first move but fails mis...

" Of Course I Believe in Father Christmas" by Janette Davies and Friends. Dedicated to Maria Wilson and The Pink Ladies in recognition of their work to raise funds and awareness to beat cancer. I bet you thought that another Christmas was over for another year, didn't you? Well, not quite! This anthology of short stories covers a number of genres by local writers. I will donate my copy to any reader who emails me with name and address details. Drummond Marvin uses humour and a touch of the autobiographical with reference to park benches and sleeping rough. Enough said…. I get better protection from The Telegraph. I catch the flu with The Mirror. Imagine this conversation with a policeman after a gust of wind blew his bedding away and wrapped itself around a policeman! Our man was resting between jobs, having secured an audition for a speaking part for that same evening. We are taken back to December 1959, to a struggling actor with the princely sum of £...