On this day in music history - The Very Best of Badfinger, by Badfinger (2000)

The Very Best of Badfinger

by Badfinger,

was released on October 23, 2000.

One of my very favorite bands of the 70s.

The band's story is very sad, but their music will be with us forever.

My all-time favorite song is Baby Blue, but also enjoy Come and Get It, No Matter What, Day After Day, and Without You.

Give them a listen, or a re-listen. I promise you'll enjoy singing along as much as my husband and I do.

Track list:

No Matter What; Day After Day; Baby Blue; Name of the Game; Maybe Tomorrow; Come and Get It; Rock of All Ages; Carry on Til Tomorrow; Midnight Caller; We’re for the Dark; I’ll Be the One; Without You; I’d Die Babe; It’s Over; When I Say; Dennis; Lonely You; Love Time; Meanwhile Back at the Ranch / Should I Smoke.

#BabyBlue #ComeAndGetIt #NoMatterWhat #DayAfterDay #WithoutYou 

Colin Firth - on reading:

When I'm really into a novel, I'm seeing the world differently during that time — not just for the hour or so in the day when I get to read.

I'm actually walking around in a bit of a haze, spellbound by the book and looking at everything through a different prism.

- Colin Firth.

Recommended reading - 2 by Michael Crichton

The Terminal Man

First published 1972.
 
ISBN-10: 0394447689
ISBN-13: 978-0394447681
 
Description:
 

In his first novel since The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton once again combines documentary verisimilitude with hair-raising suspense to open up for the reader a new area of modern science: surgical-electronic mind control.

 

The man ‘in the hands of science” – the Terminal Man – is Harry Benson. He is a violent paranoid who has already twice attempted to kill. Against the profound opposition of his psychiatrist, a team of surgeons proposes to connect his brain to a computer that will regulate his behavior. From the conflict among the doctors, to the actual operation itself – during which forty wires are attached to forty points in Benson’s brain – to the functioning of the computers, to the terrifying results when Benson escapes from the hospital, the tension rises as the reader becomes a close-up witness to an experiment just short of the ultimate computer control of a human being.

 

Psychosurgery of the kind Crichton describes is already taking place under established medical auspices – a new form of behavior control that has become a key scientific and moral issue in our time. Crichton takes it out of the realm of the abstract, and makes immediate its workings, its dangers, and its implications, in a novel that provides urgent information and, at the same time, superb entertainment.

 

----------
 

The Andromeda Strain

First published 1969.

ISBN-10: 1101974494
ISBN-13: 978-1101974490
 
Description:
 

A military space probe, sent to collect extraterrestrial organisms from the upper atmosphere, is knocked out of orbit and falls to Earth. Twelve miles from the crash site, an inexplicable and deadly phenomenon terrorizes the residents of a sleepy desert town in Arizona, leaving only two survivors: an elderly addict and a newborn infant.

 

The United States government is forced to mobilize Project Wildfire, a top-secret emergency response protocol. Four of the nation’s most elite biophysicists are summoned to a clandestine underground laboratory located five stories beneath the desert and fitted with an automated atomic self-destruction mechanism for cases of irremediable contamination. Under conditions of total news blackout and the utmost urgency, the scientists race to understand and contain the crisis. But the Andromeda Strain proves different from anything they’ve ever seen—and what they don’t know could not only hurt them, but lead to unprecedented worldwide catastrophe.

Born on this day – F. Hopkinson Smith:

 

F. Hopkinson Smith

Writer

Artist

Engineer

October 23, 1838 – April 7, 1915

Credits:

Written work:

A Day at La Guerre's and other Days (1892); A Gentleman Vagabond and Some Others (1895); A White Umbrella in Mexico (1889); At Close Range (1905); Caleb West (1898); Col. Carter of Cartersville (1891); Col. Carter's Christmas (1904); Enoch Crane (1916); Felix O'Day (1915); Forty Minutes Late and Other Stories (1909); Gondola Days (1897); In Dickens' London (1914); In Thackeray's London: Pictures and Text (1913); Kennedy Square (1911); Old Lines in New Black and White (1885); Peter (1908); The Arm-chair at The Inn (1912); The Fortunes of Oliver Horn (1902); The Other Fellow (1899); The Romance of an Old Fashioned Gentleman (1907); The Tides of Barnegat (1906); The Under Dog (1903); The Veiled Lady (1907); The Venice of To-Day (1897); Tom Grogan (1896); Well-Worn Roads (1886).

Movies and television:

A Kentucky Cinderella (1917); Art and Honor (1913); Colonel Carter of Cartersville (1915); Deep Waters (1920); Desperate Youth (1921); Felix O'Day (1920); Kennedy Square (1916); Memories of His Youth (1913); The Tides of Barnegat (1917).

Born on this day – Sarah Bernhardt:

Sarah Bernhardt

Actress

October 23, 1844 – March 26, 1923

Credits:

La voyante (1924); It Happened in Paris (1919); Mothers of France (1917); Die Tänzerin (1915); Jeanne Doré (1915); Adrienne Lecouvreur (1913); Les amours de la reine Élisabeth (1912); La dame aux camélias (1912); Tosca (1908); Le duel d'Hamlet (1900).

Born on this day – Lilyan Tashman:

Lilyan Tashman

Actress

October 23, 1896 – March 21, 1934

Born on this day – Sally O'Neil:

Sally O'Neil

Actress

October 23, 1908 – June 18, 1968

Credits:

1925 Studio Tour (1925); Bachelor's Paradise (1928); Battling Butler (1926); Beauty on Broadway (1933); Becky (1927); Beggar's Holiday (1934); Broadway Fever (1929); Broadway Scandals (1929); By Appointment Only (1933); Compression (2017); Convention Girl (1935); Don't (1925); Frisco Sally Levy (1927); Girl of the Port (1930); Hardboiled (1929); Hold Everything (1930); Jazz Heaven (1929); Kathleen (1937); Kathleen Mavourneen (1930); Ladies Must Love (1933); Mad Hour (1928); Mike (1926); Murder by the Clock (1931); On with the Show! (1929); Round About Hollywood (1931); Sally, Irene and Mary (1925); Salvation Nell (1931); Show of Shows (1929); Sisters (1930); Sixteen Fathoms Deep (1934); Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927); The Auction Block (1926); The Battle of the Sexes (1928); The Brat (1931); The Callahans and the Murphys (1927); The Floating College (1928); The Girl on the Barge (1929); The Lovelorn (1927); The Moth (1934); The Sophomore (1929); Too Tough to Kill (1935); WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1926 (1926).

Born on this day – Helen Nielsen:

 

Helen Nielsen

Writer

October 23, 1918 – June 22, 2002

Credits:
 
Books:

101 Mystery Stories (1986); A Killer in the Street (1967); After Midnight (1966); Anti-Social Register (1965); Borrow the Night / aka Seven Days Before Dying (1956); Coffin Break (1974); Dead on the Level (2012); Deadly Arts (1985); Detour / aka Detour to Death (1953); False Witness (1959); Fifty Best Mysteries (2004); Gold Coast Nocturne / aka Dead On The Level / Murder By Proxy (1951); Hard-boiled (1995); Murder on Trial (1994); Obit Delayed (1952); Shot On Location (1971); Sing Me a Murder (1960); Sing Me a Murder / Woman Missing (1961); Speaking of Greed (2001); Stranger In The Dark (1955); Tales of Terror (1980); The Brink of Murder (1976); The Case of the Gilded Lily / The Crime Is Murder / Riddle of a Lady (1956); The Crime Is Murder (1956); The Darkest Hour (1969); The Fifth Caller (1959); The Kind Man (1951); The Man in My Grave / Burden of Proof / Borrow the Night (1956); The Severed Key (1973); The Woman On the Roof (1954); To Hide a Rogue / Policeman's Dread / Verdict Suspended (1964); Uncollected Crimes (1987); Verdict Suspended (1964); Woman Missing (1961).

Movies and television:

87th Precinct (1961); Alcoa Premiere (1962); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959–1961); Blackout (1954); Checkmate (1961); Der Unfallzeuge (1971); Kraft Mystery Theater (1963); Lux Playhouse (1959); Markham (1960); Perry Mason (1961–1962); Tales of the Unexpected (1982); The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1965); The Dick Powell Theatre (1961).

Born on this day – Coleen Gray:

Coleen Gray

Actress

October 23, 1922 – August 3, 2015

Born on this day – Ned Rorem:

Ned Rorem

Composer

Writer

October 23, 1923 – November 18, 2022

Credits:
 
Books:
 

An Absolute Gift; Critical Affairs: a Composer's Journal; Dear Paul, Dear Ned: The Correspondence of Paul Bowles and Ned Rorem; Facing the Night: A Diary (1999-2005) and Musical Writings; Knowing When to Stop: A Memoir; Music and People; Music from Inside Out; Other Entertainment: Collected Pieces; Paul's Blues; Pure Contraption; Setting the Tone: Essays and a Diary; Settling the Score: Essays on Music; The Final Diary; The Nantucket Diary; The New York Diary; The Paris Diary; Wings of Friendship: Selected Letters, 1944-2003.

 

Music:
 

75 Notes for Jerry (2007); 99 Notes for the Millennium (1999); A Childhood Miracle (1951); A Christmas Carol (1952); A Dream of Nightingales (1992); A Journey (1976); A Little Fantasy (2008); A Poison Tree (2007); A Quaker Reader (1976–1988); A Quiet Afternoon (1948); A Sermon on Miracles (1947); A Song of Hosea (2005); After Long Silence (1982); After Long Silence (1982); After Reading Shakespeare (1980); Aftermath (2001–02); Afternoon on a Hill (2006); Air Music (1974); All Glorious God (1955); Alleluia (1946); An American Oratorio (1983); An Oboe Book (1999); Anna la Bonne (1989); Another Sleep (2000); Are You the New Person? (1989); Ariel (1971); Ask Me No More (1963); Assembly and Fall (1975); Autumn Music (1996–1997); Back to Life (1980); Barcarolles (1949); Before the Morning Star (1986); Bertha (1968); Book of Hours (1975); Breathe On Me (1989); Bright Music (1987); Canticle of the Lamb (1971); Canticles: Sets 1 & 2 (1971–72); Cello Concerto (2002); Christ is Made the Sure Foundation (1992); Chromatic Fantasy (2001); Clouds (1953); Concertino de Camera (1946); Concerto for English Horn (1991–1992); Conversation (1957); Cradle Song (1953); Cries and Whispers (2000); Cycle of Holy Songs (1951); Dance Suite (1949); Dances (1984); Day Music (1971); Death and the Young Man (2007); Design (1953); Diversions (1990); Do I love you more than a day? (1962); Double Concerto (1998); Eagles (1958); Early in the Morning (1954); Echo's Song (1948); Eight Etudes (1975); Eleven Songs for Susan (2007); Eleven Songs for Susan (2007); Eleven Studies for Eleven Players (1959–1960); Evidence of Things Not Seen (1997); Exaltabo Te, Domine (1995); Fables (1971); Fanfare and Flourish (1988); Fantasy and Polka (1989); Fantasy and Toccata (1946); Far-Far-Away (1963); Ferry me across the water (1978); Festival Alleluia (1992); Five Armenian Love Songs (1987); Five Poems of Walt Whitman (1957); Flight for Heaven (1952); Flute Concerto (2002); For Barbara (2006); For Ben (1999); For Don (2006); For Marian (2006); For Mary (2006); For Poulenc (1963); For Rosemary (2006); For Shirley (1989); For Susan (1953); Four Colours (2003); Four Dialogues (1953–1954); Four Hymns (1973); Four Introits (1999); Four Madrigals (1947); Four Poems of Tennyson (1963); Four Prayers (2006); Four Sonnets (2005); Four Sonnets of Shakespeare (2008); Frolic (1986); From an Unknown Past (1950); From an Unknown Past (1950); From an Unknown Past (1950); From When Cometh Song? (1978); Full of Life Now (1989); Give All to Love (1981); Gliding O'er All (1957); Gloria (1970); Go, Lovely Rose (1979); Gods (1957); Goodbye My Fancy (1988); He Shall Rule from Sea to Sea (1967); He Will Not Hear (2001); Hearing (1966–1976); Homer (1986); How Like a Winter (2013); How Lovely is your Dwelling Place (1994); I Am Rose (1955); I Feel Death... (1953); I Never Knew (2001); I Strolled Across an Open Field (1959); I Will Always Love You (1955); I Will Always Love You (1990); Ideas (1961); In a Gondola (1953); In Time of Pestilence (1973); Julia's Clothes (1950); King Midas (1961); Last Poems of Wallace Stevens (1971–1972); Laudemus Tempus Actum (1964); Lead Kindly Light (1988); Let's Take a Walk (1981); Letters from Paris (1966); Lift up your Heads (The Ascension) (1963); Lions (A Dream) (1963); Little Elegy (1949); Little Lamb, Who Made Thee? (1982); Little Prayers (1973); Look Down, Fair Moon (1957); Love (1953); Love Alone (1989); Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (1966); Love in a Life (1951); Lovers (1964); Lullaby of the Woman of the Mountain (1950); Mallet Concerto (2003); Memory (1959); Mercy and Truth Are Met (1983); Miracles of Christmas (1959); Miss Julie (1965); Missa Brevis (1973); More Than A Day (1995); Mountain Song (1948); My Papa's Waltz (1959); My Sad Captains (1995); Nantucket (1978–79); Night Crow (1959); Night Music (1972); Nine Episodes for Four Players (2001); Nocturne (2007); Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal (1963); O Do Not Love Too Long (1951); O God, My Heart is Ready (1992); O You to Whom I Often and Silently Come (1957); Ode (1953); Ode to Man (2005); Orchestral works; Orchids (1959); Organ Concerto (1985); Organbook I. (1989); Organbook II. (1989); Organbook III. (1989); Our Town (2005); Pas de Trois (2002); Pastorale (1949); Piano Concerto No. 1 (1948); Piano Concerto No. 2 (1951); Piano Concerto No. 3 (1969); Piano Concerto No. 4 (1991); Picnic on the Marne (1983); Pilgrim Strangers (1984); Pilgrims (1958); Pippa's Song (1953); Poèmes pour la paix (1953–1956); Poèmes pour la paix (1953–1956); Poems of Love and the Rain (1963); Praise the Lord, O My Soul (1982); Praises for the Nativity (1970); Prayer to Jesus (1973); Prayers and Responses (1960); Present Laughter (1993); Proper for the Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit (1966); Rain in Spring (1949); Recalling (2003); Recalling Nadia (2014); Reconciliation (1957); Remembering Tommy (1979); Remembrance of Things Past (1998); Requiem (1948); Romeo and Juliet (1977); Root Cellar (1959); Sally's Smile (1953); Santa Fe Songs (1980); See How They Love Me (1956); Septet Scenes from Childhood (1984–1985); Serenade on Five English Poems (1975); Seven Motets for the Church Year (1986); Sicilienne (1950); Sinfonia (1957); Sing, My Soul, His Wondrous Love (1955); Six Pieces (1997); Six Variations (1995); Sky Music (1976); Snake (1959); Solemn Prelude (1973); Some Trees (1968); Sometimes With One I Love (1957); Somewhere... (1994); Sonata No. 1 (1948); Sonata No. 2 (1949); Sonata No. 3 (1954); Song and Dance (1986); Song for a Girl (1953); Songs of Sadness (1994); Songs Old and New (2008); Songs Old and New (2008); Sonnet (1980); Sonnet 144 (Two Loves I Have) (2010); Sound the Flute (2004); Soundpoints (2003); Spiders (1968); Spirit Divine (1992); Spring (1947); Spring and Fall (1946); Spring Music (1990); Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (1947); String Quartet No. 3 (1991); String Quartet No. 4 (1994); String Symphony (1985); Such Beauty as Hurts to Behold (1957); Suite (1980); Sun (1966); Sun (1966); Sunday Morning (1977); Surge Illuminare (1977); Swords and Plowshares (1990); Swords and Plowshares (1990); Symphony No. 1 (1950); Symphony No. 2 (1956); Symphony No. 3 (1958); Te Deum (1986–87); That Shadow, My Likeness (1963); The Animals Sick of the Plague; The Anniversary (1961); The Auden Poems (1989); The Bird Wounded by an Arrow; The Call (1951); The Dance (1978); The Dancer (1979); The Death of Moses (1987); The End (2003); The End of Summer (1985); The Fox and the Grapes; The Lion in Love; The Lordly Hudson (1947); The Midnight Sun (1953); The Nightingale (1951); The Poets' Requiem (1954–55); The Robbers, (1956); The Schuyler Songs (1987); The Schuyler Songs (1987); The Serpent (1972); The Seventieth Psalm (1943); The Silver Swan (1949); The Sleeping Palace (1949); The Sleeping Palace (1963); The Sowers (1980); The Stars Have Not Dealt (2007); The Sun and the Frogs; The Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters (1968); The Tulip Tree (1953); The Unquestioned Answer (2002); The Waking (1959); The Wintry Mind (1980); Their Lonely Betters (1992); Three Calamus Poems (1982); Three Choruses for Christmas (1978); Three Incantations from a Marionette Tale (1948); Three Motets (1973); Three Poems for Demetrios Capetanakis (1954); Three Poems of Baudelaire (1986); Three Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay (2007); Three Prayers (1973); Three Slow Pieces (1978); Three Women (1994); To a Young Girl (1951); To the Willow Tree (1950); To You (1957); To You (1970); Trickle Drops (1970); Trio (1960); Triptych (1992); Truth in the Night Season (1966); Two Poems of Edith Sitwell (1948); Two Poems of Theodore Roethke (1959); Two Psalms and a Proverb (1962); Two Sermons (2001); Two Shakespearean Poems (2008); Up-Hill (1979); Views from the Oldest House (1981); Violin Concerto (1984); Violin Sonata (1948); Virelai (1961); Visits to St. Elizabeth's (1957); Waiting (1996); War Scenes (1969); Water Music (1966); We Are the Music Makers (2003); We Never Said Farewell (1975–76); Whales, Weep Not! (1978); What If Some Little Pain (1949); What is Pink? (1987); What Sparks and Wiry Cries (1956); While Sodom Was Occupied (2004); Whitman Cantata (1983); Wild Nights (2007); Winter Pages (1981); Women's Voices (1975–1976); Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (2004); Youth, Day, Old Age and Night (1954).

 

Movies and television:
 

Camera Three (1965–1977); Flicker (2008); For the Whales (1989); Furies (1978); Great Conversations in Music (2005); Jack Mitchell: My Life Is Black and White (2006); Ned Rorem: Word & Music (2005); Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper (2016); Nuit américaine (2005); Paul Bowles: The Complete Outsider (1994); Sleep in a Nest of Flames (2001); The 65th Annual Grammy Awards (2023).

Born on this day – Marthe Mercadier:

Marthe Mercadier

Actress

October 23, 1928 – September 15, 2021

Born on this day – Dimitra Arliss:

Dimitra Arliss

Actress

October 23, 1932 – January 26, 2012

Born on this day – Michael Crichton:

Michael Crichton

Writer

Director

October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008

Credits:

Twisters (2024); Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (2020–2022); Westworld (2016–2022); Jurassic World Dominion (2022); Killer Poop in the Movies (2022); Battle at Big Rock (2019); Lego Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar (2019); Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018); Lego Jurassic World: The Indominus Escape (2016); Lego Jurassic World (2015); Jurassic World (2015); Sala de Urgencias (2015); Aberrant Forms: A Jurassic Short (2014); Jurassic Park: The Game (2011); ER (1994–2009); The Andromeda Strain (2008); Timeline (2003); Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis (2003); Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure (2001); Jurassic Park: Scan Command (2001); Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor (2001); Jurassic Park III (2001); Timeline (2000); Warpath: Jurassic Park (1999); The 13th Warrior (1999); Jurassic Park: Trespasser (1998); Sphere (1998); Jurassic Park: Chaos Island (1997); The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997); Twister (1996); Congo (1995); Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition (1994); Disclosure (1994); Jurassic Park (1993); Rising Sun (1993); Equinox (1993); Physical Evidence (1989); Amazon (1984); Runaway (1984); Looker (1981); Beyond Westworld (1980); The Great Train Robbery (1978); Coma (1978); The Terminal Man (1974); Insight (1971–1974); Westworld (1973); Extreme Close-Up (1973); Pursuit (1972); The Carey Treatment (1972); Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972); The Andromeda Strain (1971).

Books:

World (1995); Odds On (1966); Scratch One (1967); A Case of Need (1968); Easy Go / The Last Tomb (1968); Zero Cool (1969); The Venom Business (1969); Drug of Choice (1970); Dealing: or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty Brick Lost Bag Blues (1970); Grave Descend (1970); Binary (1972); The Terminal Man (1972); The Great Train Robbery (1975); Eaters of the Dead (1976); Congo (1980); Sphere (1987); Rising Sun (1992); Disclosure (1994); Airframe (1996); Timeline (1999); Prey (2002); State of Fear (2004); Next (2006); Pirate Latitudes (2009); Micro (2011); Dragon Teeth (2017); Eruption (2024); Five Patients (1970); Jasper Johns (1977); Electronic Life (1983); Travels (1988); Westworld (1974).

On this day in movie history - The Shooting (1966)

The Shooting

directed by Monte Hellman,

written by Carole Eastman (writing as Adrien Joyce),

was released at the San Francisco Film Festival in the United States on October 23, 1966.

Music by Richard Markowitz.

Cast:

Will Hutchins, Millie Perkins, Jack Nicholson, Warren Oates, Charles Eastman, Guy El Tsosie, Brandon Carroll, B.J. Merholz, Wally K. Berns, William Mackleprang, James Campbell.

On this day in movie history - No Man’s Land (1987)

No Man’s Land

directed by Peter Werner,

written by Dick Wolf,

was released in the United States on October 23, 1987.

Music by Basil Poledouris.

Cast:

Charlie Sheen, D. B. Sweeney, Randy Quaid, Brad Pitt, Lara Harris, Bill Duke, R.D. Call, Arlen Dean Snyder, M. Emmet Walsh, Al Shannon, Bernie Pock, Kenny Endoso, James F. Kelly, Lori Butler, Clare Wren, George Dzundza, Linda Carol, Danitza Kingsley, Peggy McCay, Linda Shayne, Robert Pierce, Claude Earl Jones, Jan Burrell, Channing Chase, Jessica Puscas, Molly Carter, Guy Boyd, Henry G. Sanders, Gary Riley, Jenny Gago, Scott Lincoln, Tom Santo, Michael Riley, Denis Hartigan.

On this day in movie and reading history - Night and the City (1992 and 1938)

Night and the City

directed by Irwin Winkler,

written by Richard Price,

based on the novel by Gerald Kersh,

was released in the United States on October 23, 1992.

Music by James Newton Howard.

Cast:

Robert De Niro, Jessica Lange, Cliff Gorman, Alan King, Jack Warden, Eli Wallach, Barry Primus, Gene Kirkwood, Gerard Murphy, Clem Caserta, Anthony Canarozzi, David W. Butler, Byron Utley, Margo Winkler, Maurice Shrog, Regis Philbin, Joy Philbin, Richard Price, Franklin Dennis Jones, Thomas Mikal Ford, Peter Bucossi, Bert Randolph Sugar, Nathaniel E. Johnson, Brenda Denmark, Barry Squitieri, Lisa Vidal, Carol Woods, Joseph D'Onofrio, Michael Badalucco, Deborah Watkins, Nandan Sage, Harsh Nayyar, Ben Lin, John Polce, Rosalind Malloff, Kennan Scott, Henry Milligan, Victor Machado, Chuck Low, Lou Polo, Louis Cantarini, John Quinn, Philip Carlo, Cameron Lane, Sharrieff Pugh, Mitchell Tex Low, Mick Cunningham, Dave Reilly, Leslie Bart, Ann Devaney, Lorenzo Palminteri, Catherine Russell, Ed Bannister, David Boston, Angel Brown, Alfred Cole, Ronnie Cuber, Dan Gifford, Gary Gold, Jennifer C. Johnson, Diane Kimbrell, Leslie Lawrence, John Maczko, Felicia Peluso, Michael Rispoli, Beverley Sutherland, Michael Tenaglia, Paul Zimmerman.

Recommended reading:

Night And The City

by Gerald Kersh.

Published by London Books.

First published 1938.

ISBN-10: 0995721734

ISBN-13: 9780995721739

Description:

Harry Fabian is a cockney wide boy trying to make it big in the Soho underworld of the 1930s. He is a Flash Harry in an expensive suit, a chancer operating in a cosmopolitan corner of the city where villains, spivs, prostitutes and strong-arm men thrive. But his ambition and reckless nature are pushing him towards more and more extreme acts - and a day of reckoning. Night And The City is a classic work of social-realist fiction that captures the vibrant yet seedy underbelly of London between the world wars. Its author Gerald Kersh was high-profile, prolific and hugely popular at his peak, but would later drift into hardship and obscurity. His writing is now being rediscovered. A maverick character in his own right, Kersh's life was as colourful as those of his most flamboyant creations. As well as a highly respected novel, Night And The City was twice filmed - in 1950 and 1992 - and it is the first of these adaptations that is today regarded as one of the best of the British film-noir genre. Directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark and Googie Withers, it was shot in a post-war landscape heavy with menace and charm - just like the book on which it was based.