"I Capture the Castle", by Dodie Smith

Novel, 1949

A book tackling young love, a gloriously eccentric family and the very act and art of writing, which sets off at a furious pace, setting hints and hares running before settling into something more prosaic, but still pretty compulsive. The story itself is thin, but the settings, the family and the narrative are all sparkling and have a good deal of charm and originality. There's also an air of melancholy and a hint of the Empire dissolving into a new world, although the nostalgia is by no means overdone and the book not maudlin.

"Whirlpool", directed Otto Preminger

Movie, 1949

Tightly plotted film which seems to have been given a slightly Hollywood plot (the leading characters suffer, although would probably have come off a lot worse in 'real life'). This is a tense, atmospheric journey with a wonderful study of a main protagonist hell-bent on doing no good. Granted, there are times when the plot stretches any true suspension of disbelief and the climax is, possibly, a little snappy, but nonetheless, this is an effective and affecting film which nibbles uneasily at the psyche. You'd struggle to call it a classic, although it is pretty classy.

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