I would like to say a big thank you to Publishers Push and the author of this book Terry Ward for supplying me with a review copy of this book.
This excellent book by author Terry Ward follows the story of Jack Dawkins better known as the Artful Dodger in the Charles Dickens classic novel Oliver Twist
The story continues where Jack’s fate was hinted at in Oliver Twist presumably being sent to an Australian penal colony after being caught stealing a silver snuff box.
In this continuation of the Dodgers story, Jack Dawkins is given one last chance to change his ways narrowly escaping the punishment he was lined up for.
Jack is sent to live with a man called Mr Godden who gives Jack work to do on his farm, his beautiful daughter Lysette catches Jack’s eye and she soon becomes the new focus of the Dodgers life.
Jack Dawkins by Terry Ward is a splendid book that shows the Artful Dodger in a new light, the book shows the past criminal as a caring and brave individual who shows several acts of heroism throughout the story in order to gain the heart of the person he loves.
In another side plot in relation to the Dodgers parents we see an emotional side to Jack that makes you feel for the character and root for his success.
My favourite part of the book was the love that Jack felt for Lysette Godden, I love a good romance so this soon got me hooked on the story, I also really enjoyed the references to Jacks criminal past as well as some character appearances from the Charles Dickens book Oliver Twist.
Jack Dawkins by Terry Ward may be one of the best books I have read in a long time, it is an excellent take on the Artful Dodger that gives the character more humanity and in my opinion makes him more likeable, the author was very brave to write a story based on such a timeless character but he did a wonderful job and I will be look out for Terry Wards books in the future.
5 STAR REVIEWS FOR JACK DAWKINS’!!
Jack Dawkins, AKA as the Artful Dodger, wants to set the record straight about what happened to him after he was obliged to take up lodgings in Newgate Prison. Thanks to the genius of Lionel Bart, we all have a lasting image of him skipping away into the sunset, arm in arm with Fagin. Well, the young jackanapes is here to tell you that the truth is very different.
You don’t have to know your way round archaic words, history or the works of Mr. Dickens, because Jack has very kindly provided a Glossary that you can refer to as he relates in his own inimitable fashion, his encounters with an unusually erudite Bow Street Runner, murderous villains, turnkeys, philanthropists, Innkeepers, Owlers, passing strangers-and Miss Lysette Godden, the first human being he has ever loved. Strangely enough, Jack also reveals that, as he conducts what proves to be a highly dangerous search for his mother and father, he finds his true self.
I thought you might like to take a look at Jack Dawkins’ ghost-writer.
You can see more of both of us on the You Tube video ‘the spirit of the Artful Dodger’,
in which Jack does the decent thing by returning from ‘Mutton Pie and Porter heaven’ to give me a helping hand.
Thank you for reading this review of Jack Dawkins by Terry Ward
JACK DAWKINS- being the further adventures of the Artful Dodger’
by
Terry Ward.
In which the Artful Dodger expresses his opinions on:
Fagin: He reminded me of one of those ravens you see strutting about, frightening the pigeons.
Poverty: ‘Youi ought to try living on the streets of London, summer and winter; it’s an education.’
Judges; ‘I can’t stand their type. They’ll condemn an out of work man for stealing enough to keep his family alive, then go home to a mansion and a two-hour dinner.’
Army generals: ‘Kill one man and they’ll hang you for it. Kill a hundred thousand and they’ll put up a statue with your name on it.’
Romance: Well, there’s kissing and there’s kissing, isn’t there?
Sex: ‘You don’t spend your life living in overcrowded warrens without noticing things you ought not. I’ve seen just about everything from life being made and born, to death having the last laugh, so you’d better think again about what I can and can’t do.’
Down on the farm: ‘Farming is a disgusting business. Horse dung, pig dung and
cow dung keep piling up in pens and all over the yard. It makes
me grateful that the two hundred sheep Mr Godden told me he
owns are doing it in the fields, otherwise we’d be up to our necks
in the stuff in no time.’
Fantastic reviews for
‘Jack Dawkins-being the further adventures of the Artful Dodger’
By
Terry Ward
ISBN 9784-1-911546-30-6
Widely available from online book shops
Foyles, Blackwells, the Telegraph, Amazon etc.
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Here is a link to my Review of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
https://ragglefragglereviews.com/2016/12/25/book-review-oliver-twist-by-charles-dickens/
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The 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a science fiction horror film that was directed by Phillips Kaughman and stars Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Lenord Nimoy, Veronica Cartwright and Jeff Goldblum, it should also be noted that this is a remake of a 1956 film of the same name and is based on a book called The Body Snatchers which was written by Jack Finney.
Later on in the film it becomes obvious that something supernatural is happening to people as human beings are being copied and replaced when they are re-birthed by plants leaving their old bodies to corrode at a rapid pace and a new pod person taking their place in life.
Super Metroid is a Super Nintendo Entertainment System Game and is the third game in the Metroid Franchise, it is a direct sequel to Metroid 2 Return of Samus.
As I previously stated Super Metroid introduces a map system however it is still far from easy to not get lost, the map while useful will only update if you either reach an area of the game therefore unlocking it on the map or by finding hidden map rooms that will unlock large chunks of the map for you however this will not show where bosses or upgrades are hiding so be wary of where you are going.
Super Metroids visuals are stunning and are easily some of the best in the series, the artists pushed the SNES to its limits on this one giving us a perfect blend of dark and protruding colours leaving the game with a creepy yet exciting feeling to it, I had a blast seeing all of the different areas of the game however I must say that the boss designs took the cake for me, I really enjoyed to designs for Kraid (pictured above) and Crocomire however they were all fantastic and suited their respected areas nicely.
The Barrett family enjoy the simple life in a quiet American town, that is until strange occurrences begin happening around the house and eventually to themselves.
The alien design in Dark Skies isn’t too creative but is immediately recognisable,you will notice that they look rather generic and are very similar to how aliens are portrayed in most media.
Next in the Alien franchise is 1997’s Alien Resurrection which was Directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet and was written by Joss Whedon.
200 years after the events of Alien 3 Ellen Ripley is cloned and the Alien Queen that was in her chest has been removed.
The reason Ripley was cloned was because scientists wanted to bring back and clone the Xenomorphs for studying
The film is not all silliness though as it does have a couple of disturbing scenes, the most memorable has got to be when Ripley finds her failed clones with one in particular begging for death.
For me the best part of the film was the creature design, of course technically the creature can take the form of any living organism it pleases, however its the grotesque visuals when the creature is in mid transformation that it is most visually pleasing, each time this happens the form it takes is different but all of them are disgusting and really horrifying.
The entire cast is memorable and so are the characters they play but by far the two most recognisable actors who also give the best performance in my opinion are Keith David who plays Childs who you may recognise from my review of They Live and Kurt Russell who plays Macready the lead character of the film but putting these two aside everyone in the film did a fantastic job.
Alien 3 is the third movie in the alien franchise, it was directed by David Fincher who before directing Alien 3 was mostly known for directing short films and documentaries, after Alien 3 David Fincher went on to make a lot of classic movies including Panic Room, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Fight Club.
The plot of Alien 3 is ok and it follows the story in a way that does make sense however within 15 minutes everyone apart from Ripley who survived in Aliens dies, these characters are given a very lazy send off and it really puts me off the film, I wouldn’t mind it as much if they maybe put a bit more effort into killing them off.
Alien 3 is just about as cheesy as aliens but maybe a little more serious, I didnt like the acting too much in this one as a lot of the lines felt forced however the cast was a lot of fun and the dialogue was silly enough to be funny, I cant get a decent picture of the Xenomorph however I have to admit that unfortunately it looks like it had just been pulled straight from a PS2 game and is not very scary in my opinion.
nine years after the first movie, a sequel to Alien was made and this time James Cameron took the directors chair, before writing and directing aliens, James Cameron had done the same for the Terminator two years prior.
Fifty seven years after the first movie Ellen Ripley is discovered sleeping in status in a shuttle that is floating through space, after being rescued her employers do not believe her claims that an Alien slaughtered her entire crew and left her with no choice but too blow up the ship.
The set for Aliens is very similar to the first movie however there are more of them and since more lights are used in the film they help to show more details of the architecture. In my personal opinion I think the sets in Aliens are cooler,way more interesting and way more scary, the first film was scary because you couldn’t see much of the Alien but here there are loads of them and you get to see all of the grisly details up close including a horrific cocooning scene where the aliens cocoon their victims next to a non hatched Face Hugger egg leaving the victim forced into a grizzly fate.
While visiting a soup kitchen John Nada discovers a church in which a secret meeting is being held, after a police raid which destroys the shanty town where the church is located John returns to the church and finds boxes filled with sun glasses, it is quickly discovered that while wearing the glasses you are able to see subliminal messages such as consume, stay asleep and obey hidden behind advertisements as well as the ability to see alien creatures hiding behind human disguises, the aliens soon learn that John had learned their secret and he becomes a fugitive with his only chance of saving the human race is revealing the secret to the rest of the world.
The design for the aliens in They Live may look more like a zombie than it does an extraterrestrial,the reason for this design is so that it makes more sense that they could disguise them selves as humans due to the fact that they have similar bone structure and shape making them more believable when they are in disguise.
I have no complaints with the casting of the movie by far the best performance was Roddy Piper who did a lot of improvisation including the famous line “I came her to chew bubble gum and kick ass and I’m all out of bubble gum” as well as also giving a lot of help when filming an epic alley fight scene. Meg Foster also did a great job with her portrayal of Holly Thompson a Cable 54 assistant director and its only fair to mention Keith David who played Frank.
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