Stuff wot I have seen and heard...

Not the world's most clever or amusing blog post title, but I'm in a bit of a mood today.

So - following on from my own daily Twitter aide memoire, #threegreatthings - more detail on three things that are great...

The Robin Hood audios from Big Finish

I marginally preferred The Siege to The Witchfinders, but both were a bit more enjoyable than, say, the similar Doctor Who Companion Chronicles. It helps enormously that Richard Armitage is a very talented voice artiste who does quite fabulous impersonations of the rest of the cast (his Much is uncanny) but the stories are interesting and engaging and make good use of the audio format, and even manage to include the same level of silly plot convenience as the TV Series (such as the frankly silly reason given for not pulling the pretend Lazarus' hood off in Witchfinders) . I'm looking forward to pikcing up the rest of these at some point.

The Henry Grisham novel series by Martin Stephen

I'm on the third of these (The Galleon's Grave) and this remains the best serious(ish) historical fiction series I've read since Patricia Finney. An engaging hero with a bit of a mysterious back story, a fine sense of historical detail and a solid and flowing writing style make these top notch novels.

Obscure (and not so obscure) Girl Groups

I've been listening to a 4 cd set of slightly obscure girl bands from the 60s called 'One Kiss Can Lead to Another'. Lots of great pop songs, but '442 Glenwood Avenue' by the Pixies Three and everything by the Shangri-Las are especially brilliant.

Interesting fact of the day - Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las allegedly attracted the attention of the FBI for transporting a firearm across state lines...