Raven

I'd never seen Whittaker in anything before Doctor Who, so I didn't know what to expect, and although I have warmed to the character as her series have progressed, I don't think she will be topping my list of favourite Doctors any time soon (I would have said "needy" rather than "girly" btw!) Chris Chibnall's had written for both Torchwood and Doctor Who previously, but he was never one of my favourites and there are better Who writers out there. As you say, the stories have generally been dull (which is about the worst charge to level at Doctor Who) but more than that, after the witty and polished dialogue from both Russell T. Davis and Steven Moffat, some of the dialogue in the last two series has been painful to sit through. It will be interesting to see what happens next...

You can watch it as many times as you like, but it will be part of the regular service from October 6th so I don't see the point in paying extra at this point! The price for Black Widow is £19.99 in the UK, btw.

I see Jodie is off next year, along with Chibbers. For once, I'm more interested in who is going to run the series than who the new Doctor is likely to be (partially because I suspect I won't have heard of the new actor before, but also because the new show runner will be the one to shape the series for the next few years).

If it is the same as over here, it's for premium access to new movies that are either currently in the cinema or are only being streamed (I'm pretty sure $30 is roughly what Disney+ are charging on top of their monthly subscription for access to Black Widow, for example). It sounds like a lot in the context of one viewer, but if you are a family of four it's about the same as, or cheaper, than going to the cinema.

The excellent I am Legend, by Richard Matheson is 99p on the Kindle today. (It's much better than the lousy Will Smith adaptation!)

Much cooler here today, down to a much more tolerable 23°C at present! Slept a bit better last night.

Was still very hot last night, but it has been a bit cooler today (down to 28°C in the office, but 25°C outside).

Fnar! I just leave all the windows in the flat open once the sun moves off them, usually does the trick but after several days of very hot weather the thick brick walls of the flat tend to hold on to a lot of heat...

I didn't sleep very well last night, after quite a good night's sleep on Monday (I was out last night and didn't get the chance to cool the flat down properly before I went to bed). 30.2°C in the office today, but it looks like the air temperature outside is starting to drop (now only 27.5°C, in the shade!)

Well, you are Scottish; if you've left your duffle coat off long enough for sunlight to touch your skin directly you probably have third-degree burns already!

Hi Gillian! What type of books do you prefer? (thrillers, rom-com etc!)

Well that was an unexpected game of live cricket on BBC2 this evening! Well done to England Women for winning the match and the series against India. Oh, and just in case you have not seen this most outrageous of catches... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/cricket/57785924

Wow, that opening is prescient! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000x7vk

I joined the Wetlands & Wildfowl Trust earlier in the year and Arundel is my closest centre - have yet to book a slot and pop over, though! I watched them (from a distance) at work on Friday, and again (much closer) at home this lunchtime. Didn't get any good photos though because my camera started shading everything blue...

It most certainly is - the copy I have is from the SF Masterworks range!

I was just agreeing with your comment that one star seems harsh! (personally, I would probably give it a 3, but it is a long time since I read it so that's not a given). The book, like many other science fiction novels that have been written by respected authors, seems to be widely lauded, but I've read other books that tackle the same subject better, but are consigned to relative obscurity because of the sci-fi label.

I really hope England don't win on Sunday; having commentators invoking The Spirit of '21 for the next half century doesn't have the same ring to it as The Spirt of '66!

I read The Drowned World a number of years ago now, and cannot remember a whole lot about it, but I wouldn't classify it as a one star book, even though I remember it as being hard going.

Too. Many. Jokes. *Head explodes*

Written by Alan Moore - same chap who did Watchmen and a hullva lot of other things!

Star reviews are only useful for telling you what an individual thought about a book if you can put that rating into some kind of context. If you know who the person is who is giving the rating that can help you determine what you might think about a book/film/song//whatever it might be. If you don't know the person who posted the review (such as happened for a while with some film posters, where clever marketing people thought it would be good to give some "real people" feedback on their films) you'll have no idea how to assess the worthiness of the rating. I used to rate books out of five, but I switched to giving general comments - like; Recommended; Avoid; It made my eye's bleed... - a few years ago as I thought this might be more helpful. In part, this came about after reading Mark Kermode's book, Hatchet Job. In the book Kermode argues that the place of critics is ever more important in the days of social media when everyone can say what they feel about a subject. If you have a well know critic give a review - whether you agree or not with their comments - you have a yard stick to judge their comments and ratings against. If you don't know anything about a reviewer, how can you interpret what they are telling you? And that brings me back to the first line of this post, and a wider point I am trying to make about how aggregated star scores on sites such as Goodreads, Amazon, Untapped etc. can be distorted. Leaving aside all the underhanded things that can go on with ratings on aggregator sites, say you have a "marmite" film that splits opinion 50:50 - half the audience love it, half hate it - so you end up with a 2.5 rating. Not great, but not utterly dreadful; so some people who may have watched the film and loved it will be put off by the low rating, whilst others who would hate it might just be encouraged to watch it. In my experience, on a lot of these sites - and I feel it happens more with book reviews - most people tend to be positive rather than negative, which leads to an overwhelming number of 3 to 4 star reviews, and what does that really tell you? As others have said, a lot of people give up on bad books, and then don't post negative reviews, or give low star ratings, but I would argue that people should say when they think things are bad and that this may be more useful than giving a distorted view that everything is, if not great, at least okay. Rambling a bit, but I hope that makes sense!

Yep, Raducanu going to make a fine British player!

Before. The film was based on the comic.

You've got those little flags on your car. Two of them. Haven't you?

Up to 6 in 9 now... I think this is the most prolonged wet period I've had for quite a while now, although working from home for two days a week may mean I've avoided more than I otherwise would have...