Female Agents
France 2008

AFTER so many decades of Second World War pictures, many film-makers now feel obliged to seek out fresh avenues – including, recently, an overdue focus on the oft-unsung distaff aspect of operations. The results have ranged from Gillian Armstrong’s lukewarm Charlotte Gray (2001) to Paul Verhoeven’s barnstorming Black Book (2006). Unfortunately the latest example of this particular sub-genre, Female Agents, is much closer in ambition and quality to the former than the latter.

Dalai Lama: The Revealing Life Story and His Struggle for Tibet by Mayank Chhaya
IB Tauris, £9.99

THERE is, perhaps, no religious or political leader who embodies his nation as completely as the 14th Dalai Lama which is why Mayank Chhaya’s book is as much a history of Tibet as a straightforward biography of the man. Or, at least, as straightforward as a biography about a re-incarnated mystical monk can be.

The Edge of Love
Director: John Maybury

SELECTED as the opening night film for this month’s Edinburgh Film Festival, The Edge of Love has many of the hallmarks of a successful, prestigious British movie. It’s has a period setting – in the 1940s, mainly in a London racked by the Blitz; it focuses on the life of a respected, renowned creative figure – poet, scriptwriter and legendary drinker Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys); it stars Keira Knightley – as Thomas’s childhood friend and lifelong soul-mate Vera, plus Sienna Miller as his independent-minded wife Caitlin; it’s handsomely-appointed in its attention to decor, sets, costumes and production design, and has no shortage of solid names working behind the camera, including composer Angelo Badalamenti (a frequent collaborator with David Lynch).

The Dream That Died: The Rise and Fall of ITV
by Raymond Fitzwalter
Troubador Publishing, £14.99

SOME years ago, with all party support, I introduced a Bill designed to counter the rise of tabloid TV. The Media Diversity Bill sought to promote a level playing field between satellite and commercial television, break up the Murdoch empire and impose some minimum standards.

Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings
National Portrait Gallery, London

THE term “bluestocking” has become something of a pejorative name for intellectual women: not a mega put down, but one suggesting someone serious and worthy – and dull. Yet, the origins of the term, which lies in the 18th century, was applied to women who were thoughtful, questioning and anything but dull.

Hugo! The Hugo Chávez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution by Bart Jones
The Bodley Head, £12.99

MOST of the reports about Hugo Chávez and the Venezuelan revolution over the past ten years have been vicious, heavily influenced by the hostility of the USA. But Bart Jones, who is openly sympathetic to Chávez, does an exemplary job of examining his life and actions from a plethora of perspectives.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
US 2008
Persepolis
France 2007
HAVING recently participated in the 2008 Edinburgh Marathon 21 years after my first and hitherto only one (in New York), I know what it is like to compete against my younger self. This is Harrison Ford’s challenge in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, donning fedora and bullwhip as the titular archaeologist and adventurer for the first time since 1989’s Last Crusade. I can tell him: “It’s not the years but the mileage.”

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

IT’S NOT every author who can command an audience of 1,000 for a book launch. That’s what Naomi Klein got at Friends House in London on May 19. But then it’s not every author who acquires near-guru status for her critiques of global capitalism, first with No Logo in 2000 and then, last year, in The Shock Doctrine which has just been published in paperback.

Watching the Door: Cheating Death in 1970s Belfast by Kevin Myers
Atlantic Books, £14.99

PERHAPS the most astonishing thing about this compelling book is that its author survived long enough to write it. Because Kevin Myers, as a cub reporter, found himself with a front row seat almost from the moment when what has been euphemistically, and misleadingly, referred to as the Troubles in Northern Ireland began.

Ladytron
Astoria Theatre, London

THE words “Astoria Theatre” and “neglected old dump” are generally agreed not to sit incongruously in a sentence together. So it was not altogether surprising when, towards the end of Ladytron’s concert, a mixing desk packed up and the rest of the gig had to be abandoned. “We’re probably as gutted as you are”, vocalist Mira Aroyo told the unhappy crowd. At least by then the Liverpool-based four-piece had delivered 10 songs and treated the audience to a taste of their new album.