Ray Schaufeld's blog

I had tears streaming down my face. Tears of laughter. This Country shows us the comic doings of Kerry and Kurtan Mucklowe and Kerry's dad Martin. Lots of good back-up bods too including big Mandy and Kerry's uncle Nugget. Uncle Nugget is soon to be released from prison but 'he was only having a laugh and 12 of the 20 people on the bus thought is was funny.' One for the nine o'clock watershed, pranks with large vehicles are not to be copied by...

The film makes excellent use of the book by Paula Hawkins. We keep the story word for word and the cinematography proves it is now a film. Not hard, we get shots from the train, shots of mysterious badness in the woods neart the tunnel, plenty of violent war between the sexes. Girl on a Train is a good old-school suspense thriller and we get full value. There is more than one death,only one is accidental, more than one character is bed-hopping...

Sometimes I read some of the writings on Abc and also the work of modern published fiction writers and it seems like woe and misery from start to finish. With the exception of some good Nature writing and a bit, I wish there was more, of humour the same themes crop up again and again. Women reliving their abusive encounters, individuals going to the pub or the party all set for a good night out but only finding isolation and pain at the bottom...

'He sleeps in my arms, we are welded, his penis still in me.' Don't waste your time with the 50 shades series, Anais is the real deal. Born in 1903,her first book of poetry was entitled House of Incest - I have not read it but how the heck did she get it published in 1936? Henry and June is her diary, written up later as a book. Anais is in Paris, it is 1931, she is married to Hugo. She meets the author Henry Miller, his woman June, yes - with...

Yes, that's right. Together with the rest of Exmouth I now only have half a Central Post Office. It moved into W.H.Smiths a couple of days ago and is now half its former size. I went in today to buy a stamp to post an important document. Where are all the old staff? Where's Dave, where's Claire. This lot are new faces. Yes I can see they have been trained to smile their little socks off and come out with loads of friendly patter, but.. Ah I see...

I could see Pitbull was proving a smash success. Reviewers showing their enthusiasm with long paragraphs, exclamations and five-star ratings. A long run at the Exeter Odeon. Yes this police- action- drama-comedy-lovestory was pulling in the Poles from far and wide. Subtitles too... It's brilliant. If I had to choose between this and Trainspotting T2 I can only say see both! Different stories, same hard punchy reality humour, bish, bash bosh the...

I want my money back. Where's all the trains? T2 is a harder film than Trainspotting. It's violent, it's the violence Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie have done to themselves in the past 20 years. Still funny, still new in places but hard. All alive, life is their sentence. Not being fathers in any real sense of the word is their worst punishment for being clueless, stupid,and sometimes cruel and selfish for 20 years. 20 years of learning who...

Tulip Siddiq is one of our best Labour MPs. She recently voted against Brexit, and always follows the wishes of her constituency. She has the hard job of filling Glenda Jackson's boots in Hampstead and Kilburn, England's most marginal constituency where she won her seat in Westminster by 44 votes. As well as being little and cute and very sharp witted and switched on, Tulip is from a family that has lived politics the hard way. Her grandfather...

It was wonderful! From Thursday to Sunday I was one of about 50 retreatants at the beautiful Gaia House in West Ogwell (10 miles beyond Newton Abbot in Devon). All new to me and 'first time for everything.' The beauty of the winter oak silhouttes, the chatter and song of the blackbirds, robins and blue tits. The mosaic bordering the little pond. Walking meditation in the grounds was a treat. We all did one hour of 'working meditation', each day...

Moravia's women are often independent and practical, taking every day as they find it. Often they live for sex. In 'Two women', his tough on-the-road tale of a mother and daughter they also live for food which is in scarce supply. The time - World War Two. Cesira, played by Sophia Loren in the 1960 movie is a hard-headed country girl who moved to Rome after a loveless arranged marriage to an older man, a tight-fisted shopkeeper. We meet her as a...