What’s on our shelves: Something Wicked this way comes as we journey through western lands, binge Netflix Christmas films and much more…

Film: Wicked directed by Jon M. Chu

My daughter surprised me with a trip to the cinema to see Wicked and what a lovely surprise that was. As a real lover of musicals, I have of course seen the stage production but if I am honest, was left a bit underwhelmed. I had heard such great reviews about the show so was expecting to really enjoy it but unfortunately, I left feeling a bit disappointed and flat. With this in mind, I was not too sure what I would think about the film but I loved it. I personally thought it was much better than the stage show and would recommend anyone to go and watch it. It is 2.5 hours long but it doesn’t seem that long as you are immersed into the story. At the start, I was surprised to see “Part 1” in the title and wondered how and when they were going to end the film. It is very well done with a great cast who fit their roles extremely well. It is a lovely, upbeat, colourful (well, green) film and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Can’t wait for Part 2.

Fiona Borthwick, Head of Sales and Account Management – PTFS Europe

Book: Trelawny’s Cornwall – A Journey Through Western Lands by Petroc Trelawny

You may or may not know Petroc Trelawny. For many years he has been a presenter on BBC Radio 3 and also for the BBC Proms. 

To me he is a familiar voice.

As a radio presenter now residing in London, Petroc goes back to Cornwall to revisit his memories from growing up there as a child. The book starts with a listener of his making the assumption that his name has been made up, a stage name! However, it is not. It is a name connected to Cornwall’s celebrated saints. 

I feel like I have a number of connections with the author. Firstly, his love of Cornwall. The area in which he grew up is very familiar to me as it is the same area we visited on holiday every year as a child. Secondly, we are also a similar age (so some of his childhood memories mirror mine!). Thirdly, he spent an early part of his childhood, not in Cornwall, but in West Byfleet, Surrey, a village I lived in for some years; the son of a military father who was based there. So, this book is already an A* for me before I open the cover!

In the mid-1970s the Trelawny family end up back in their home county of Cornwall and Petroc describes the area with beauty and nostalgia. I feel I know quite a bit about the area around the Lizard Peninsula and Helston but I learnt so much more reading this. The author wanders through various topics. The many methodist chapels, strange Cornish customs, memories of schools, to amazing stories of ships and shipwrecks. I hadn’t quite appreciated what an important port Falmouth was at one time! If railways are your thing, there are memories of journeys travelled and stories of branch lines long gone. 

Cornwall was also an important communications hub at various times in the past. Firstly, in the 19th century, the worlds largest submarine telegraph station was founded at Porthcurno and had cables running right across the world. This, of course, became hugely significant during the First World War as messages were transmitted from England to the battlefield. Then, in the 1960s, Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station opened with the famous “Telstar” dish. This received the first live transatlantic television broadcasts from the United States. Of course, both are no longer working establishments but you can visit the Telegraph Museum and the visitor centre at Goonhilly, they are both worth it. And, whilst you are there, the amazing outdoor Minack Theatre perched on the cliff tops!

Of course, this review wouldn’t be complete unless I mentioned libraries and, to my surprise, he introduces Passmore Edwards, a Cornish born philanthropist who established 24 libraries to benefit the lives of the working classes. He wanted every town in Cornwall to have a library and put up the money to support this. Many towns took him up on this offer and, although not all the libraries remain (why does that not surprise us!), many of the buildings still exist and are in use today (5 as libraries still).

Cornwall has had good times and tough times. Once important to the Crown, they have their own language and have a strong national identity. It is a county full of cuisine, surfing, great literary works, poetry, music and, of course, the most stunning coastal scenery you can imagine. I was just full of warm feelings reading this. If you, like I, love Cornwall you will love this. If you don’t know Cornwall, read it and maybe you will be drawn to its charms!

Jonathan Field, Managing Director – PTFS Europe

Films: Helen’s Netflix Christmas film round-up

One of my favourite things are the Hallmark/Netflix/Christmas24-type films that come out every year and I almost love the worst ones the most.

Meet me next Christmas directed by Rusty Cundieff – Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Fab side characters; decent dance routine; leads who had a modicum of chemistry with each other. My biggest complaint was towards the end when she inevitably had to rush to let him know she was mad about him and, for reasons best known to the writers, spend about 15 minutes arguing with a bouncer to get into an event she had a ticket for.

Hot Frosty directed by Jerry Ciccoritti – Classic example of the genre where I loved the side characters and couldn’t have cared less about the leads – a win in my book. I watched this with a friend and enjoyed making up back stories for our favourite side characters (Doug Judy in hiding as a police officer working with a Boyle cousin – if you don’t get that reference I will happily educate you) and watching her husband pretend he wasn’t loving it.

The Merry Gentlemen directed by Peter Sullivan – Terrible Christmas Full Monty rip off. Story made no sense; lead characters were charmless and chemistry-less. Threw in a classic teen drama trope where the male lead was a ‘nice’ guy which actually means he thinks he’s entitled to whatever he wants because he’s ‘nice’ and turns on you when he doesn’t get what he wants. If I cared, I’d have so many questions for the writers. Why would a Christmas dance group (The Jingle Bells!) fire their lead dancer weeks before Christmas? What did she do for work for the rest of the year? How were they going to support the bar after they paid all their debts? Why was it so hard for the three male dance group to go down to two dancers but easier to go up to four?

Our Little Secret directed by Stephen Herek – Ah Lindsey. I could be cruel and say the only thing more wooden than your acting is your face but that seems unfair to a female lead that had so few lines and so little to contribute. No chemistry and another ‘nice’ guy male lead who was a tool to her and never apologised for it. I’m not sure how they got so many epic cameos but maybe they needed to to make up for the total lack of anything worth watching from the leads. Or maybe the writers squeezed the ‘lead’ story into the much more interesting and charismatic side characters’ stories… we’ll never know.

Carry-on directed by Jaume Collet-Serra – Solid action thriller. Modern but better Die Hard 2. Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman were both really good. There were genuine tense, ‘trolley car’ philosophical moments that left me thinking what would I do if I ever found myself in that situation. A new film to add to the argument ‘is it a Christmas film or not’, but regardless of where you stand on that, well worth a watch anytime of the year.

That Christmas directed by Simon Otto – I haven’t watched this one yet as I wasn’t in the mood and Queer Eye series 9 came out so I HAD to binge that, worth it.

I also read Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley and listened to Odyssey by Stephen Fry. Thoroughly recommend both.

Helen Symington, Sales Executive – PTFS Europe

Books: Dread Nation and Deathless Divide (sequel) by Justina Ireland

Imagine the US Civil War was won, but then the dead arose. This is the world of our fearless and feisty protagonist Jane. Jane is a trained dead-killer, but survives in a world of inherent racism, where although slavery is now illegal, society is using native American and Afro-American people as their first line of defence against the dead plague. The characters are well thought out and the first book had a genuine twist in the tail that surprised me (which is rare). The pace is typical of a teen fantasy novel in that it fair rattles along, with no room to get bored. The second novel starts very unusually, (no spoilers)! But really gets you thinking. 8/10

Sam Goldsmith, Business Development  Manager – PTFS Europe

Book: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I also re-read The Road as part of my post-apocalyptic reading. I don’t think there has ever been a more accurate portrayal of misery and (pointless?) hope. Do not read unless you want to wallow a bit in the gloom. Beautifully written though, even when all around is dismal death, the words are poetic and express deep philosophical enquiry. Spoiler – there is no joy to be had in this book, probably NOT recommended holiday fare.

Sam Goldsmith, Business Development  Manager – PTFS Europe

Card game: 6 Nimmt! = Take 6! = 6 Qui Prend! designed by Wolfgang Kramer

Published in English by VR Distribution (German and French editions also available)
Take 6! is a card game classic. It’s a family classic for me, associated with memories of family gatherings (playing it with 10 people is WILD) but I think it’s fair to say it’s becoming a PTFS Europe classic too. Sometimes I think I should get a commission, given how many colleagues bought the game after playing it with me!
Take 6! is simple yet fiendish and fun. To win, you must have the lowest number of points. To have the lowest number of points, you want to pick up the fewest cards with the fewest bull heads on them. To avoid picking up cards in the first place, you need to make sure your card isn’t going to be the sixth one on the row. But that’s tricky; and there’s always the risk the other players will manage to slip their cards in before you, making your card the sixth one!
See it on Newcastle Libraries’ Aspen catalogue.

Aude Charillon, Customer Services Consultant – PTFS Europe

Video game: Metaphor: ReFantazio developed by Atlus and Studio Zero

This game is the latest from Atlus and from the minds behind games such as Shin Megami Tensei and Persona and it oozes with the creativity that can be found in both of these series of games.
The game itself was an evolution of the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series and in my opinion was a masterpiece. The game was incredible story wise, drawing you into the game, making you truly emotionally invested in the characters. Alongside this the art of the game was captivating with designs that you can sit and admire for hours at a time.
They ensured that each character was portrayed with a unique personality with their own personal struggles making each a great investment to learn about. Each of the characters that you could learn about had 8 different “set pieces” where you learn about their struggles and help them overcome and grow as a person.
The story itself hits a number of hard hitting points with your main character coming from a “tribe” that was thought to bring destruction with them wherever they go. There were a number of different twists that occur in the game that help to keep you engaged, wondering what will occur next. The main villain had clear-cut motivations to be the way he was and why he wanted to become the king of the nation, with a number of different valid points on how to change the country for the better although in a radical way.
The gameplay borrowed some aspects from their previous games but evolved it with new mechanics, which helped speed the pace of the game up while also keeping the fun and engaging turn-based battling. This system helped pacing of the game by making it so you didn’t have to interact with the turn-based system against enemies that were considerably weaker than yourself; in previous games you’d load into the turn-based system in a different “field”, input commands for 1 turn, win, and then have to load back into the “overworld”. By skipping this system on these enemies it means you have less time in loading screens and more time getting to the next objective in the dungeons.
The system also added an additional layer of difficulty where enemies stronger than you could put you into a disadvantage in the turn-based battle if they hit you first.
This game is a 10/10 and is a must have / play if you’ve ever been interested in playing a turn-based game.

Ryan Henderson, System Administrator – PTFS Europe