Oh frot - Grant without Naylor

Advantages: A bit like Red Dwarf
Disadvantages: Not enough like Red Dwarf

...Rob Grant is half of the comedy writing partnership that created the cult comedy, Red Dwarf (the other half being Doug Naylor). Grant without Naylor is like any good comedy partnership - they are both good in on their own, but better together. Red Dwarf has lost it’s edge since Rob Grant left. Which was why I bought this book. Hmm. I forgot that Rob Grant was responsible for the Sky One ‘comedy’ The Strangerers. Mysteriously popular, I found The Strangerers incomprehensible and ridiculous. Grant without Naylor doesn’t so much verge on silliness as wallow in it. He has the ideas, the wit, the classic put-downs, but something is missing. He comes across as an eternal student, this book has the feel of a rag-mag. I found it hard to get into and didn’t warm to his characters, but I will probably read it...

MichelleScott 23.01.2001 (22.01.2001) · Read review
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Review of Colony - Rob Grant

How To Win Grants & Influence People

Advantages: Money!
Disadvantages: Not that much money...for arts and humanities students at least

...This category is for any advice on applying for research grants; there are of course many different types and levels of research, and a whole range of different bodies who award grants for undertaking it. I am going to write about my own personal experience in applying for research grants, which was in the "Doctoral Competition" run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (henceforth "AHRC"). The AHRC, for those of you wondering, is a body set up by the Government in 2005 as a successor organisation to the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), which was established in 1998 to fund research in the arts and humanities in higher education. They receive £80 million of Government money each year to distribute to postgraduate researchers in universities (at both Masters and PhD level), professional researchers in universities...

Collingwood21 02.07.2006 · Read review
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Review of Applying for research grants, higher education advice

At least Rob Grant can see it coming

Advantages: funny, couldn't put it down
Disadvantages: finishing it

...more complex, but nothing you couldn't handle! One of the biggest highlights of the book was the sheer volume of comedy, The jokes in there are never over done or strung out and are definitely not in short supply. There is also something for everyone, ranging from comedy in its most blunt form, to a political satire in other places. The characters integeral to the plot are few, and at times can seem underdeveloped, but i can assure you they are not. Rob Grant is direct and to the point without getting bogged down with the past and it does not really detract from the characters at all. All in all Incompetence is a great book and i would highly recommend reading it. It is a laugh a minute, whilst providing a satisfactory plot and at times can be scarily insightful as to what Europe is heading towards!...

robynpennock 07.09.2005 · Read review
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Review of Incompetence - Rob Grant

Grant diaries nail it with I

Advantages: Not the usual 'life' story biography, funny and witty
Disadvantages: His film work has doubled since its release, really needs a diaries pt2

...for referring to him as Dick rather than Richard). Richard E Grant's film diaries are exactly that, diaries and not an autobiography which is a welcome change to some life stories which can be littered with everyday hum drum. I would recommend this one if you are a real fan of the man or his films but it is 10 years out of date (his last entry is June 95) and for £7.99 that seems a lot for a book which is badly in need of an omnibus (it would for instance be interesting to see his comments on the recent Argos adverts). Do look around in the second hand shops as I picked my copy up for £2. Info; Picador publishers, £7.99, paperback, 320 pages (a section of black and white film shots in the middle) ISBN - 0330349678...

Paid.Ark.Man 06.06.2005 · Read review
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Review of With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E Grant - Richard E. Grant

Even Better

Advantages: An action packed read
Disadvantages: Some suspension of disbelief required

...Sibling rivalry can be either a wonderful or a horrible thing. It can cause massive arguments, or it can inspire a sibling to stretch themselves and achieve more than they might usually have done. ??Even?? is the debut novel from Andrew Grant, who is the brother of Lee Child, author of the successful Jack Reacher series and it seems that the latter point is true this time around. Late one night, David Trevellyan sees a dead body in a New York City alleyway. As a former Navy officer, he goes in to take a closer look, just as the police arrive. He?s confident he can prove his innocence and will soon be released, as if the police won?t accept the truth, his contacts at the British Embassy will secure his release. But when he is passed to F. B. I. agents on the basis that the victim was one of their undercover agents, he realises he...

Soho_Black 03.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Even - Andrew Grant

HEALTHY PREGNANCY GRANT

Advantages: Money for mums
Disadvantages: new system not tried it

...Further to original review, my wife and I have found it impossible to get hold of the grant forms for this. Problem with this scheme, is if you don't get the grant forms dealt with before baby is born, you won't qualify for the pregnancy grant. The telephone helpline which administers this scheme will not send the grant form to you direct, they require the mothers national insurance number and doctors surgery details, and then they say they will discuss the scheme with the doctor (the doctor / midwife still has to apply for the form, this cannot be done directly by the mother.) Our doctors surgery has indicated that it is the responsibility of the midwife team to order these forms, between the doctor, the midwife and directgov nobody has provided us with the necessary form. You may have to chase this early, if you hope to...

llbcollins 22.01.2009 (19.03.2009) · Read review
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Review of Everything that starts with H ...

Incompitence

Advantages: Hilarious!
Disadvantages: Humour might not appeal to all....

...I became aware of Rob Grant after reading a DooYoo review of his book 'Fat' - it sounded right up my street, so I got it from BookMooch and thought it was absolutely hilarious. The other week I noticed that there was a copy of another of his books "Incompetence" available, so I mooched that too! Published in 2003, this is Rob Grant's third novel. Rob Grant Rob Grant was born in Salford, and is most famous for co-creating, writing and producing (with Doug Naylor) Red Dwarf. His other books are 'Backwards' (a Red Dwarf book), 'Colony', and most recently, 'Fat'. You can find a bit more about him here - www.imdb.com/name/nm0335621 The Story The story is set somewhere "in the far too near future" (quite scarily so), in a world where Europe is united and it seems to be virtually impossible to find...

marymoose99 09.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of Incompetence - Rob Grant

Richard E Grant makes a great Pimpernel!

Advantages: Great acting, excellent timing, good effects
Disadvantages: None for me

...I am a great fan of Richard E Grant and when he starred in the films about the Scarlett Pimpernel I was glued to the screen! As I say I was initially drawn to the films because of Richard E Grant but soon found myself fascinated by the stories and more than a little impressed by the standard of acting. The films were first shown on television in 1999 but Dave has since bought me the boxed set containing the first three films in the series and it currently retails on Amazon at just £6.98 for the box so it would make a great Christmas present for someone. The films are written by Richard Carpenter and are based on the book The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy and were filmed mainly on location in Prague where the local scenery matched what France would have looked like during the revolution. The cast includes Richard E Grant...

SusanLesley 15.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Scarlet Pimpernel (Box Set) (DVD)

Temptress Redeemed?

Advantages: Detailed account of life and times
Disadvantages: More times than life

...Don't be misled by either the title or Gennari's evocative 'Death of Cleopatra' used for the cover of the 2003 paperback edition. Cleopatra famed for her lovers as much as her inherited power does not strongly emerge as the focal point one might expect. If Grant intended to write a 'life and times' - he succeeds much better with the 'times' than the 'life'. In part, the author has set out to rescue Cleopatra from her reputation as a wayward temptress not only opting for a life sensuous luxury herself, but stealing away Roman emperors to the neglect of their own affairs of state. In this, he succeeds - but it's hard going. Much of the book describes the changing world scene in the years before she was born and during her reign. This was a world dominated (as ever) by two super-powers - the Greeks and the Romans. When we think...

hiker 27.06.2006 · Read review
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Review of Cleopatra - Michael Grant

A Cary Grant film

Advantages: Cary Grant
Disadvantages: Loud and silly

...Introduction Cary Grant is a household name (if you're over 35 at least) and for a reason: he is a good actor. The fact that he is good-looking, even by today's standards, hasn't done him any harm either. But, like most actors, he sometimes made mistakes in his acting roles?and this was one of them. It isn't that he didn't act well, but the film itself was below his standards and no-one else brought anything to the film that made me want to revise this opinion. The director Howard Hawks was born in Indiana in 1896. He directed films such as the original Scarface, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Red River, The Big Sleep and I Was a Male War Bride, showing himself to be a versatile director of a wide range of films, including westerns, screwball comedy and detective fiction. The plot Hildy Johnson, ace reporter and ex...

sunmeilan 07.03.2006 · Read review
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Review of His Girl Friday (DVD)