“You’re mine in the next world, right?” “Might come sooner than you think.” Murchison’s Fragment brings together nineteen plays – mostly for stage but with three for radio – that range from a deceptively frivolous, if macabre, 10-minute monologue to an uncompromising 45-minute study of imprisonment and torture based upon a real-life situation. In between are tales of ambition, greed and human frailty, here and there touching upon horror and the supernatural. Throughout, we encounter flawed individuals getting their comeuppance or – just as likely (and unjustly) – escaping it; elsewhere, others less deserving succumb to forces beyond their control. Some of the plays are unambiguously and intentionally serious: one, for example, follows the adventures of a boy within the autistic spectrum, determined to do a good deed but failing to realise the cost of his actions; another concerns reparations to Kenyans who suffered under the colonial administration during the Mau Mau insurgency; a third offers a challenging and doubtless contentious interpretation of a New Testament episode – the resurrection of Jesus. Other plays may appear lighter, even humorous, although darker threads almost always run through them. ‘Murchison’s Fragment’, which lends its title to the collection, is a story of lost opportunity set in London and east Africa; here the protagonist unwisely allows lust to overcome reason, with far-reaching consequences. The collection ends with a romantic love story in which a formidable barrier to a fulfilling relationship unexpectedly falls away. For each play a synopsis is provided, with additional notes where there is background interest.

Vol. 2 contains opinions beginning with no. 134.

Iconic images from fiery scenes of catharsis in Gone With the Wind and Rebecca to The Third Man's decadent cinematography have proven inseparable from their accompanying melodies. From the 1910s-50s, producer David O. Selznick depended upon music to distinguish his films from his competitors'. By demonstrating music's value in film and encouraging its distribution through sheet music, concerts, radio broadcasts, and soundtrack albums, Selznick changed audiences' relationship to movie music. But what role did Selznick play in the actual music composition that distinguished his productions, and how was that music made? As the first of its kind to consider film music from the perspective of a producer, this book tells the story of the evolution of Selznick's style through the many artists whose work defined Hollywood sound.