Creative Sensemaker: What to read, watch and listen to this weekend
A rundown of the books, films, music and more by Tortoise Media, the slow news agency
Welcome to the latest Creative Sensemaker from Tortoise Media. This week’s Creative Sensemaker is a series of recommendations for the festive season:
Watch
A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Mezzotint (Christmas Eve, BBC Two)
Mark Gatiss writes and directs this fine adaptation of one of the spookiest stories in the English language. Set in 1923 and based on the original tale by MR James, The Mezzotint portrays the psychological collapse of Edward Williams (Rory Kinnear) as he grows obsessed with an engraving of an English country house – and the unnerving changes that he witnesses occurring within the borders of the image. A worthy rendering of a true classic.
Read
The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories: From Hans Christian Andersen to Angela Carter edited by Jessica Harrison
This is the season for anthologies: for dipping into the best collections and compilations you can lay your hands on. There are a fair few such treasuries of festive stories, but Jessica Harrison’s is the finest I have come across, with tales by authors ranging from Truman Capote, Shirley Jackson and Elizabeth Bowen to Dostoyevsky, Italo Calvino and Daphne du Maurier.
Listen
If you grow weary of playing Now That’s What I Call Christmas and the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, may I suggest It Feels Like Christmas by Vitamin String Quartet – these offbeat, festive adaptations by VSQ are quirky chamber versions of songs ranging from Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas’ to Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’.
That’s all for now – Creative Sensemaker will return in January.
Have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year.
Best wishes,
Matt d’Ancona
Editor and Partner
Tortoise Media
@MatthewdAncona