WARFLICKS

I was reading The Long Tail which describes the phenomena of the vast increase in choice because of the Internet. The writer also developed his book over the Internet as it allowed people to comment on his work in progress.

I thought it was a brave idea. Also if you write your book on line you know where it is at any one time. It is not on disks or on pieces of paper around the house to be lost.

I then heard on BBC Radio 4 the book of the week about someone who had a love of musicals and how it had affected their life. It got me thinking about what I was interested in and I came to the conclusion it was War films. I am not obsessed by them but ever since I was very young I have watched a lot of them.

I used to watch a lot of cowboy films but they went out of fashion until the Dollar films of the sixties and seventies. I can still watch the classics like The Magnificent Seven but most of them look very dated.

The first war film I remember watching was China Doll in 1958 when I was eight. It was in Blackpool with my elder sister and mum. It was a B picture but was very sentimental.

They came out both crying. I don't think I have seen it again but it is not on video or DVD so it has not even made it that far.

The first X rated film was The Long and the Short and the Tall which was based on a play. I was about 12/13 at the time. I was in Singapore and a friend of mine had seen it in town. I talked my dad in to taking me. I told him all there was in it was swear words. All they had was the odd bloody, tame by today's standards.