Alan Sugar Speaks Out Against Non-Binary Community

Alan Sugar, businessman and presenter of the British Apprentice television series has made statements that complain about non-binary people, and saying that people who use gender free language should be deported.

During an interview with tabloid rag The Sun, in which they praise Sugar for telling 'it like it is' in a 'sensitive world', the businessman took aim at 'snowflakes'. He stated that 'The world has gone mad, it's ridiculous, they're looking for new things to be offended by'.

'It's absolutely crazy,' he continued, 'you can;t say anything nowadays without offending somebody with how they look, dress, the colour of their skin or whatever. It's sickening quite frankly.'

The fact that he's complaining that you cannot say anything about the colour of people's skin without them being offended does seem a lot like he's complaining about not being able to say racist things, something that he has received criticism for in the past. In 2018 he received criticism for tweeting racist comments about the all black Senegal World Cup football team. He was also previously accused of racism for making jokes about a crying Chinese baby.

When journalists asked him what he thought about non-binary pronouns from the 'woke generation' he became quickly angered.

'They need to pack it in, it's nonsense.' He replied. 'The people promoting it need to be shipped off to Mongolia. Send them away, get them out of the country. Go away. It boils down to a small bunch of people that promote it.'

This isn't the first time that he has insulted members of the LGBTQ+ public, as last December he made comments on social media about having 'had enough' gay people in his board room.

It's clear from his comments both now and in the past that Alan Sugar is a man who does not like the fact that he can't be openly racist, homophobic, and transphobic. He has repeatedly made negative comments about minorities and continues to do so, probably assuming that because he's a rich old white man he won't face any kind of consequences for his actions.


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BBC Presenter John Humphrys Says BBC Is 'Too Sympathetic' To Trans People

Veteran BBC television and radio presenter John Humphrys has received backlash from the LGBTQ+ community following comments where he stated that the BBC is too supportive of trans people.

The former presenter of Radio 4's Today programme spoke out against his former employer last weekend whilst appearing at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. He claimed that the BBC and their staff have a 'liberal left agenda', which he said leads to coverage about trans issues that is too 'sensitive'.

'If you take something like, for instance transgender, the BBC's mindset is such that you must , kind of accept what the prevailing view is.' He said. 'Except that's their prevailing view, and perhaps mine is slightly different.

'The BBC’s attitude with that sort of social development is to be immediately sympathetic, not entirely detached as I believe they should be, but sympathetic and that worries me.'

He also added, 'I happen to believe, personally, that there are not an unlimited number of genders. I believe that we are born men and women. I feel slightly worried when large numbers of children are being told 'You think you might be a girl or you think you might be a boy? We'll go and get you medical attention'.'

He continued to use the fear of trans children to compound his point by saying, 'I'm uneasy about children being told in schools there are more than 100 different genders and it's possible for someone to change gender overnight. I'm worried about where it's heading. The BBC's attitude with that sort of social development is to be immediately sympathetic, not entirely detached as it should be.'

John Humphrys has in the past faced criticism for voicing anti-trans sentiment live on air when he described trans women as 'men who think they are women'.

Many of Humphrys' arguments are ones that will be familiar to many members of the trans community, as they are often used by TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) to attack members of the trans community. They also bear a striking similarity to homophobic arguments that were used in past decades by somehow framing the trans community and their existence as a threat to children.

Whilst the BBC is by far not the worst broadcaster for anti-trans sentiment, it is far from the sympathetic network that Humphrys believes it to be. Perhaps anything less than outright hate is seen as sympathy towards those who harbor anti-transgender views. But then again, is anyone really surprised that an old white man in his late seventies isn't okay with those who don't conform to narrow viewpoints on gender and sex?


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Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery – Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery is the latest anthology from Titan Books, this time offering a host of tales of witchcraft and magic. The authors on offer here are an amazing bunch and some big names, including authors of popular series such as The Morganville Vampires, and the Dark-Hunter Hellchaser saga. One of the things that really makes the book stand out however, is how many of the authors are women. The fact that editors Christopher Golden and Rachel Autumn Deering have gone out of their way to fill the book with diverse voices makes for such a treat.

Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery gives readers a broad range of stories – as broad as the genre of witchcraft and magic can allow. Some stories have witches who are heroes, acting to protect the innocent. In some, they are foes who cause death and destruction in their wake. Some are set in worlds much like ours, where magic is unknown and mysterious, whilst others are in times and places where magic is something that everyone believes in. The book has so many different stories on offer that any reader will struggle to come out disappointed. There’s something for everyone in this collection, and if you’re like me, you’ll love it all.

‘Widows’ Walk’ by Angela Slatter tells a tale of a group of elderly widows who take pity on a young girl who’s being neglected by her family. When it turns out that the widows are actually witches, their interest in the girl takes a more magical turn. ‘The Night Nurse’ by Sarah Langan switches things up by having a less than benevolent witch at its centre, instead telling a story of a strange old women who acts as a night nurse for a new mother. Over the course of the story the ‘kind’ older woman begins to act more and more suspicious until she becomes downright frightening.

Mary SanGiovanni’s ‘The Memories of the Trees’ is set in a future where humanity has regressed following an apocalyptic war in the twenty-first century. In a society that has been destroyed by technology, magic has made a resurgence, and must come to the aid of a woman and girl condemned to death. ‘How To Become A Witch Queen’ by Theodora Goss takes place in a fantasy world, and follows the recently widowed queen Elfrida. Desperate to secure a safe future for her daughter, Elfrida recruits friends and allies from her past, including seven dwarves, to build her own kingdom with her mothers old magical equipment. The story twists the tale of Snow White wonderfully, and gives us a new version of the character, the woman who inspired the fairy-tale.

Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery doesn’t just include stories set in new worlds, however, but also tales from other book series too. These stories give some insight into these series; in some cases introducing main characters, in others just giving a taste of the worlds that the stories inhabit. Kelley Armstrong offers a tale about Eve Levine, a witch on the run, that connects into her Otherworld series in ‘Black Magic Momma’. We get to see a story set in Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampires series in ‘Home’. This story is set between the events of one of her books, and features a few of the main cast coming together to deal with a witch threatening their town. These stories will add to the experience for fans of those particular series, giving them more adventures to enjoy with those characters. For those who aren’t familiar with these universes, they act as a great taster that can be a nice gateway into those stories.

Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery is one of the better anthology books that I’ve read. The stories here have a wide range of styles, and they present very different ideas of witchcraft and magic, yet they all have the same high quality. Christopher Golden and Rachel Autumn Deering have done an amazing job as editors, and have gone above and beyond to craft a volume that really does present some of the best short stories available. An absolute must read for fans of short stories, horror, and witchcraft, and presented in an absolutely gorgeous hardcover edition too.

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Printer's Devil Court by Susan Hill - Book Review

'A chilling ghost story by the author of The Woman in Black. One murky November evening after a satisfying meal in their Fleet Street lodgings, a conversation between four medical students takes a curious turn and Hugh is initiated into a dark secret. In the cellar of their narrow lodgings in Printer's Devil Court and a little used mortuary in a subterranean annex of the hospital, they have begun to interfere with death itself, in shadowy experiments beyond the realms of medical ethics. They call on Hugh to witness an event both extraordinary and terrifying.

'Years later, Hugh has occasion to return to his student digs and the familiar surroundings resurrect peculiar and unpleasant memories of these unnatural events, the true horror of which only slowly becomes apparent.'

I was excited to read Printer's Devil Court largely due to how much I enjoyed The Woman In Black. I had found Susan Hill's work on that book to be brilliant, and it had genuinely scared me when I read it. The prospect of something similar had me very eager, and it jumped into it as soon as I was able to. Sadly, I found the book quite dull.

The initial set-up in the book was fairly interesting, set in London during the early decades of the last century, it has a very gritty and dark feel straight off, and Hill is able to craft a location that feels like it belongs in a ghost story. The group of young student doctors that discuss the notion of being able to revive the dead led me to images of reanimated corpses and frankenstein-like creations skulking in the foggy back alleys of the city.

However, this never really materialised. After showing the reader, and the narrator, one experiment where it appeared a young woman was brought back to life the book didn't really do anything with this. There was no shocking event, no insight into how these young men were seemingly able to capture some kind of 'life-force' or 'soul' and transfer it into someone as they died. When, decades later, the narrator returns to London and comes across a strange ghost that appears to be some kind of amalgamation of two people there's no horror there, no sense of dread or fright at all.

The narrator is momentarily shocked by what he finds, but then is quite rational about things, and goes out of his way to help these spirits. Whilst this might be seen as an interesting twist to some, I couldn't help but feel a little bored by it. If the protagonist in a horror story is frightened, why should I be?

I saw a comment online about the story, where the reviewer said that Susan Hill was coasting on her reputation as a horror writer following The Woman In Black. Whilst I think this is somewhat harsh, I can kind of see why they'd make this kind of comment. Her other was was so good that this in comparison is very much a let down. You want a story that has the same quality as The Woman In Black, the same sense of fear and dream, the same horror, and Printer's Devil Court just doesn't have this.

The book isn't a bad story by any means it fails to live up to the legacy that Susan Hill had made for herself. It doesn't reach the highs that The Woman In Black does, but it does have some interesting concepts in it, and it manages to craft a pretty well realised character in a very short length. There was potential for a lot more in this book, and whilst it might not meet that it's sure to keep readers entertained. The fact that it's also a book that can be read in a single sitting helps with this. An interesting way to spend a few hours, but probably a read that will end up slipping from memory soon after.

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IT Chapter Two - Film Review

IT Chapter Two returns audiences to the small town of Derry, where the terrifying entity Pennywise has awakened from his decades of slumber ready to kill more children, and to get revenge against the Losers Club.

The choice to split IT into two films is probably the best thing that the filmmakers could have done. Whilst the shifting narrative settings within the book worked for that particular format (though I did have a few issues with it on occasion when reading it), it worked less so in film, as the 1990 miniseries showed. Here, the adult actors get their chance to shine without having to compete with the teenagers who played the younger versions of the characters. Even though there are some scenes in IT Chapter Two that return audiences to the 1980's, this is still very much about the adult cast, and these flashbacks play important parts in their journeys.

The adult cast are very good, and for a number of them it's almost eerie how much they look like the younger versions of the characters from the first film. Andy Bean who plays Stanley Uris is only in the film for a short amount of time, but I was immediately stunned by how much he looked like an older version of Wyatt Oleff; likewise, Nicholas Hamilton had a similar impact as an older Henry Bowers. And whilst Bill Hader did resemble Finn Wolfhard to a certain degree, it was his portrayal that really sold it being the same character.

I actually found him to be the most interesting member of the Losers Club in this film, and think that the new subplot about him being a closeted gay man was actually really interesting, and at times his performance was very moving.

The gay plots that happened in the film were handled well, especially the opening scene of the film that depicted the brutal homophobic attack of Adrian Melon. A scene that was cut from the 90's miniseries, it was used here to great effect. It took an incredibly disturbing and violent act, a very real kind of act, and used to it return Pennywise in a truly shocking way. For much of the scene you could be forgiven to forget that this is a film about an evil clown as we see that everyday people can be capable of such incredible evil themselves. Whilst some people complained about the tone and the violent nature of the scene it was an incredibly important scene from the book and I for one am very glad to see it included.

Unfortunately, the one area that I felt let this film down was that it just wasn't as scary as the first film. Perhaps this is because during the first film we were still discovering this version of Pennywise, and that slow unfolding of the threat was very scary. Maybe it's because I knew how the character acted now that I was somewhat prepared a second time round. Whatever the reason, he just didn't scare me as much. And I'm someone with coulrophobia, so this film should have really messed me up.

But this complaint is in no way a complaint about Bill Skarsgard, who is absolutely phenomenal in the role. I understand that a lot of people have a very real connection to Tim Curry as Pennywise, and whilst I do love Tim Curry he's nowhere near as good in the role as Skarsgard. He exudes menace whenever he's on screen, even when he's being sweet to children to lure them in. He's able to convey huge shifts with the tiniest facial expression, and can go from creepy to downright horrifying with the flip of a switch. So much of what makes Pennywise scary in these two films is down to his acting ability, not any kind of effects, and he should be lauded with praise for his work here.

In some ways it's sad that IT has come to a close, as it feels like there is a lot more to this story and this world left to tell. I know that there is supposed to be a 'super-cut' version of the film coming, and that Andy Muschietti wants to add in deleted scenes, and even film new pieces, so I have that to look forward to, but for now I feel a little down that it's done.


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