INKY SQUIGGLES

The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald  (Simon & Schuster, 9780743451505) Publication date: 25 June 2002 (first published 1922) My rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ Would-be Jazz Age aristocrats Anthony and Gloria Patch embody the corrupt high society of 1920s New York: they are beautiful, shallow, pleasure-seeking, and vain. As presumptive heirs to a large fortune, they begin their married life by living well beyond their means. Their days are marked by endless drinking, dancing, luxury, and play. But when the expected inheritance is withheld, their lives become consumed with the pursuit of wealth, and their alliance begins to fall apart. (Vintage Classics description) 'Things are sweeter when they're lost. I know--because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot, and when I got it it turned to dust in my hand.'

The most striking part of the 20th Anniversary Edition is the transformation into polished HD graphics. The moody, detailed environments – one of the game's greatest strengths – truly shine in the re-release, enabling Jane Jensen's vision of the New Orleans locales to be fully realised. Robert Holmes' remastered soundtrack is more stirring than ever. Additionally, the rerecorded voices are strong and don't jar with my recollections of the characters – a concern when I discovered the excellent original voice cast (including Tim Curry, Leah Remini and Mark Hamill) wouldn't be returning. Otherwise, there have been slight refinements (such as a helpful new hint system) and additions (new puzzles and scenes), although nothing drastic. The game is, for the most part, faithful to the original, which can be seen as both a strength and a weakness. Although not groundbreaking, the intriguing and well-paced storyline still holds its own (check out my review of the sec...

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe , £8.99 (Oxford University Press, 9780199537419) Publication date: 1 November 2008 (first published 1794) My rating:   ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ The Mysteries of Udolpho is the story of orphan Emily St. Aubert, who finds herself separated from the man she loves and confined within the medieval castle of her aunt's new husband, Montoni. Inside the castle, she must cope with an unwanted suitor, Montoni's threats, and the wild imaginings and terrors that threaten to overwhelm her. (Penguin Classics description) I don't believe in judging classic literature according to contemporary sensibilities, which makes a review of an 18th-century novel challenging. Certainly, as other reviewers have noted, Radcliffe is due credit for her pioneering Gothic novels. Her prose is strong, her landscapes and settings are imagined on a grandiose scale and, excepting a tiresome every-other-page occasion of a fainting fit, in Radcliffe's work is a prevailing...

I have just reread one of my first works of fiction , grandly entitled: "The Jealous Rival: In Death Not Divided". Featuring beautiful maidens, awful love poetry, and grisly deaths, it is a masterpiece of my 10-year-old imagination. Here's a gem of a scene: "Bertram and Geraldine were immensely happy and started to make plans for a grand wedding. But then, alas, shadows began to darken over their paths. Cordelia was secretly in love with Bertram de Vere herself, and when Geraldine told her about the engagement, she was simply furious...One evening, Cordelia, thinking they were alone, pushed Geraldine off a bridge with a wild mocking, 'Ha ha ha! You will never marry Bertram now!' But Bertram saw it all and at once he plunged into the dangerous current, exclaiming, 'I will save thee, my peerless Geraldine! Have no fear!' But alas, he had forgotten that he couldn't swim, and they were both drowned, clasped in each other's arms." Well,...

When a friend recently challenged me to list ten books that have influenced my life in some way, I was presented with two problems. The first was the painful process of whittling my favourites down to just ten. I hummed and hawed over the issue for several days and had to suppress some serious feelings of guilt at 'betraying' some of my other favourites before reaching any kind of resolution. The second was the frustrating feeling that Facebook (where the challenge was circulating) wasn't an adequate platform for conveying just how much I loved these books. After all, as Jorge Luis Borges wrote, 'I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met... all the cities that I have visited.' To redress that wrong, therefore, here are my picks in the order that I discovered them, alongside some of my favourite book covers and quotes for each. 1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien Collins edition (2002)

'As artistic as a video game' isn’t a phrase that gets bandied around often. While perceptions are gradually changing, video games have long been associated with degenerate teenagers mashing buttons to effect a mysterious 'pew pew' sound. News and media outlets almost unanimously condemn them as being at the root of all youth violence, and the parents who purchase mature-rated games for their sprogs seem to think of them as little more than sophisticated toys. Video games as art might be a divisive subject – if only because the concept of what a video game should be and do is such a limited one in the first place. Besides. What is art, if not the search for meaning in the abstract? Or something. The following 'game changers' are just a few of a growing number whose interaction design, storytelling and musical direction make a compelling case for video games as a legitimate art form. Machinarium