\u00a0 .<\/strong><\/p>\n Film<\/strong><\/p>\n The best film of the year<\/strong> only just makes it in time – The Favourite <\/em>deserves all the accolades currently being showered on it, as it\u2019s funny, inventive, raucous, rude and witty: all the qualities I like in a movie. While Roma <\/a>was also superb.<\/p>\n Best documentary in another strong year for my favourite genre was the extraordinary Three Identical Strangers<\/em>, a labour of love and one of the few that had the legs \u2013 well three pairs of them – to go to the full feature length. And both The Rider <\/em>and American Animals<\/em> blurred the line between documentary and fiction to great effect.<\/p>\n Books<\/strong><\/p>\n But mostly I\u2019ve been reading old classics<\/strong>, from Ian Fleming\u2019s muscular Moonraker<\/em> \u2013 so much better than the piss poor film \u2013 to Graham Greene\u2019s Quiet American<\/em> and Robert Pinsky\u2019s tremendous translation of Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/em>, the best of the considerable pack.<\/p>\n And the very best wishes for 2019 to all my discerning readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This has been a wonderful year for me in every way – and here are some of my best things from it: Music \u00a0My favourite album didn\u2019t make any of \u00a0Top 50 lists in the magazines – Bennett Wilson Poole\u2019s eponymous debut was a fabulous slice of Americana with Byrds style guitars – all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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<\/a>My favourite album<\/strong> didn\u2019t make any of \u00a0Top 50 lists in the magazines – Bennett Wilson Poole\u2019s eponymous debut was a fabulous slice of Americana with Byrds style guitars – all the more unusual for being produced by three old geezers from Oxford (including Danny Wilson from Danny and the Champions) \u2013 great songs and they know how to play live as well, as we saw them at Kings Place in London.\u00a0 Also loved Spiritualized\u2019s new offering And Nothing Hurt <\/em>(anything Jason Pearce does is always worth a listen, and they are another band who play a blinder live). Talking of live performances, I enjoyed David Byrne\u2019s renaissance, and although there are some filler tracks on his new album, \u2018Everybody\u2019s Coming To My House\u2019 is certainly single of the year.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/favourite2.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/hogland.jpg\")
<\/a>I have personal reasons for liking If Not Critical<\/a><\/em> by the late great Eric Griffiths \u2013 see an earlier post<\/a> \u2013 and Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God<\/em> by Tony Hoagland<\/a> who also died this year and was to my mind the most wonderful American poet.<\/p>\n