Anthony Daniels Books

Well, unless you have the cold heart of a Sith, Star Wars did indeed translate well from the silver screen to radio, thank you very much. Yes, Star Wars' visual effects are a big part of the magic of the saga, but the heart and soul of George Lucas' galaxy far, far away are the characters and the storyline. And while the movie is satisfying on its own, the radio dramatization written by the late Brian Daley takes us beyond the movie....beyond the screenplay...and even beyond the novelization.

By expanding the movie's story beyond its two hour running time, the Radio Drama allows us to catch glimpses of Luke Skywalker's life BEFORE the movie. It tells us how Princess Leia acquired the Death Star plans....and what, exactly, happened to her during her interrogation aboard the Empire's battle station...(it is an interesting scene, but not for the squeamish, by the way). In short, by expanding the story to nearly seven hours, characters we loved on screen acquire depth only equaled by novelizations.

The Radio Drama makes extensive use of material written (and in some cases filmed) for A New Hope's silver screen version but cut for editorial or technical reasons. Also, Ben Burtt's sound effects, John Williams' score, and the acting of Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Anthony Daniels (See Threepio) give the whole project its "true" Star Wars cachet.

There are articles from such leading authorities on change management as John Kotter (Leading Change), Paul Strebel, and more. Each article opens with an executive summary, helping you decide if you want to tackle that article then and there, or move on to another that fits your interests of the moment.

Sooner or later, change is about people altering the status quo, and those in charge often turn a blind eye to the fact that leadership is singularly the most important issue when an organization has to implement major changes. This is followed closely by teamwork, of which there won't be any without leadership.

Inside the covers you'll find the collected knowledge, opinions and counsel of those executives and consultants who have dealt with change at all levels. If your schedule doesn't permit you to leisurely meander through hundreds of pages to find a few workable ideas upon which to build some change solutions, then this collection should be highly recommended for you.

In the nicest possible sense, this book isn't exactly what the title claims. All to often discussions of change management tend to concentrate on the people side of things and ignore the less glamerous topics such as re-tooling, revised administrative and reporting procedures and so on.
So, just to keep the record straight, this book is primarily concerned with the personnel aspects of change, with all other aspects of the overall process taking a very secondary part in the proceedings.

And now, on with the review:

One of the ways I judge a book like this is by the number of highlights I've made (makes it so much easier to refer back to the key points).
Sometimes I'll go through an entire book and be lucky to have half a dozen highlighted passage.

NOT here, though.

Without a hint of exaggeration I found numerous points worth highlighting in every one of the eight reprinted articles.

Of course this is not entirely surprising given the list of contributors, which includes such "leaders of the pack" as John Cotter ("Leading Change"), Richard Pascale and Anthony Athos ("The Reinvention Roller Coaster"), and Jerry Porras (Building Your Company's Vision").

I'd also like to commend the article "Managing Change : The Art of Balancing", by Jeanie Daniel Duck, (which ended up with highlighting on nearly every page!).

So, whilst the material is not exactly new (the various items appeared in the Harvard Business Review between 1992 and 1998), I'd suggest this well-chosen set of articles is as important now as when the articles were first published.

I also saw the movie and was pleasantly surprised that it was very good and stayed close to the book. I always have problems with movies and found two glaring errors and one significant omission. Nicole Kidman was dressed as a cross between a Gibson Girl of the 1890's and Miss Kitty of Gunsmoke. I never understand why they can't do the ladies' clothing correctly for the 1860's. Renee' Zelwiger was miscast as Ruby. She needed to be much bigger, fatter, and more country. Renee' comes off as a city girl trying to pass for a country woman. They should have had Jude Law go back and kill the guy with the women after he got loose from the chain gang, as happened in the book. Finally, the band was playing "Sittin' On Top Of The World". That song was not written until 1930. So much for historical research.

Could Mountain: The Journey from Book to Film takes you on the road that everyone involved with this film walked down. First, we meet Minghella and Frazier, as they both discuss the writing of the book and of the script. Then, we meet the producers, the set desingers, the cinematographer, the costume desingers, the actors, the editor... Everyone who played a major role in the making of this film is presented in this book.

I haven't yet see the film and cannot say if the greatness of the book translated well when it was taken to the silver screen. But judging from the interviews and the pictures in this film, I have to say that I don't think I'll be disappointed. The pictures in this book are beautiful and very attractive; you can already tell that this will be one heck of a film to look at (the pictures alone are the kind of visual candy you can't pry yourself away from). And then, the book also reprinted parts of Minghella's screenplay. And like we saw in his other films, The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley, Minghella really has a knack for writing engaging and touching dialogue.

Reading this book only made me want to see the film even more. It's rare that you are allowed to partake in this kind of journey, following a film's progress from point A to point Z. But this book brings you right into the heart of the film's production, discussing all the problems the crew faced, and telling us little annecdotes about the making of this film. Cold Mountain might not end up being the greatest film ever made (although I do wish it is), but I can tell, judging by this book, that it will be a great and very important film.

After reading this I went on to read Faith Popcorn's books, and found them to be rather flat predictions that demographics could easily fortell. Boom Bust & Echo is a useful toolkit for business people with lots of examples to draw from. My wife and I had our own company at the time, and I had to make her read the book so we could re-assess our strategy in light of this under-used tool, and it allowed us to reposition our company without straying from our original mission.

It is extremely accessible to students at all levels, as well as teachers, tutors and professors who want to brush up on their 1980s politics. The first part of the Seminar Study neatly captures the early troubles, the government's belated ascendancy after 1983 and the makings of the PM's downfall after 1987. The final section provides the key critiques of the Thatcher government's profile in history. From left to right, these critiques bring alive the controversy that surrounded the 1979-90 government and its enduring legacy on recent adminstrations.

A fine introduction to a fascinating period of twentieth century British political history with chronology and sources to boot. A word of praise must also go to co-author, Daniel Collings, who made his publishing debut whilst still a finalist at Keble College, Oxford. His esteemed tutor, Larry Siedontrop - a prolific author in his own right, must be very proud.