Withnail and I: From Cult to Classic
Toby Benjamin
Titan, £39.99, pp144
You may have thought that there was nothing new to be written about the much-loved 1987 cult comedy Withnail and I, but Toby Benjamin’s fascinating and exhaustively researched book brings together new interviews with the surviving cast and crew, never-before-seen on-set photographs, and reflections and appreciations from well-known Withnail aficionados. Even for the committed devotee, the book’s adulatory tone may grate – Benjamin would have been wise to get a dissenting voice in there for balance – but it combines revelatory insight with deep affection for one of the finest British films ever made.
Light Over Liskeard
Louis de Bernières
Harvill Secker, £20, pp282
Louis de Bernières may have never again equalled the commercial and critical success of 1994’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, but he has continued to publish beguiling, at times absurd novels, of which Light Over Liskeard is a fine example. Set in a jollier dystopia than the norm, it tells the tale of “Q”, a cryptographer who takes refuge from the madding crowd in Cornwall, and comes to anticipate the end of a world driven thoroughly insane by boundless technology. Cautionary fable and wry comedy jostle for space in this thoroughly entertaining read.
Hellish Nell: The Curious Case of Britain’s Last Witch Trial
Malcolm Gaskill
4th Estate, £12.99, pp496 (paperback)
Helen Duncan was an unremarkable woman, save for the fact that in 1944 she became the final person to be prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act – a cause célèbre that would eventually involve Winston Churchill, MI5 and “ghostbuster” Harry Price. Malcolm Gaskill’s brilliant book, first published in 2001 and now reissued with new material, not only offers an indelible account of a paranoid country at war with enemies tangible and supernatural, but teasingly invites us to take our own position on witchcraft, and its unlikely practitioner.
• To order Withnail and I: From Cult to Classic, Light Over Liskeard or Hellish Nell go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
