David Wolstencroft

This is a spy thriller book set in London.
Two men Charlie and George are both spies they are stationed in a photo developing booth in Oxford circus tube station. They find out they are both spies and that they have been tasked to kill each other. MI5 have made a bit of a balls up. They eventually after trying to kill each other team up, they cant really trust their bosses and escape over to France, then Canada. They have one alley called Neil who works for the service too, Charlie was at school with him. They head to Canada because George has money hidden there and its a big wilderness.
Meanwhile back in London the Spy Bosses know Neil helped them escape and they are onto him.
All is looking good for Charlie and George but George tries to shoot Charlie with a boobytrapped gun that Charlie tampered with. Charlie escapes with the money.
Neil also survives but is quite seriously injured. Charlie sends him a postcard.… (meer)

David Wollstencroft is best known for having created the successful BBC television series, Spooks. It is perhaps less well known that he had also previously been Alexander Armstrong’s original comedy act partner.

Before creating Spooks, he wrote two espionage novels, the first of which was Good News, Bad News. I am a huge fan of spy novels, and I think it is fair toi say that, whatever he might subsequently have achieved, this book is not a marvellous addition to the oeuvre.

To be fair, it does take a fresh perspective on the field, and features an amusing and engaging plotting device, although I feel I can’t say much more without straying into unwelcome potential spoiler territory. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the twist he uses is sufficient to sustain a novel of this length.… (meer)

I can't absolutely remember if I watched episode 10, and thanks to the Guardian recaps I realise I haven't and I have no problem returning the series without having watched it. I find I don't care, and should have realised when I fell asleep during my first viewing of episode 3 that I should have given up then, but no I put myself through several more hours of this. Not my thing.

Louis XIV decides that he's going to create a sumptuous palace in Versailles and discovers that just because he decides to do it doesn't mean that it's going to be easy, while dealing with internal politics and external politics and sex, lots of sex. It features a lot of nasty people that I had no real empathy for or eventual interest in. This was a pity as this should be my sort of thing.… (meer)