Friday High Five: Breaking Beats, Dahl on Immunisation

Why Roald Dahl supported immunisation

There’s a measles epidemic in the US at the moment, with 95 cases following an unvaccinated child’s trip to Disneyland- and in that context, Roald Dahl’s plea for parents to immunise their children, following his daughter’s death from measles (aged seven) has gone viral.

Mia Wasikowska is Madame Bovary

A new film of Madame Bovary, starring Mia Wasikowska, is on the horizon. Here’s the trailer.

What are book reviews for?

In the New York Times, two critics debate the purpose of book reviewing: is it a performance art, meant to entertain the reader and exercise the critic’s writing chops, or a public service, meant to inform the reader whether the book is worth buying? Or a bit of both?

Breaking Beats

Breaking Bad’s Walt Junior (RJ Mitte) has been busy since the show folded – modelling, film roles – but says nothing he does will ever beat Breaking Bad. He’s kind of demonstrating his determination to hold onto Walt Junior with the beginning of his music career as a DJ, and his new club event, entitled … Breaking Beats.

To Kill A Mockingbird 2

The internet has been abuzz this week with the news that Harper Lee has signed a deal to release her ‘rediscovered’ manuscript Go Set a Watchman, for the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird. There has been speculation that she was manipulated into signing the contract, with her agent and lawyer taking advantage of her age.

According to the Guardian’s Alison Flood, Andrew Nurnberg, Lee’s foreign-rights agent, says that not only is that nonsense – but To Kill a Mockingbird was originally intended to be a trilogy.