It is now about eight years since I came across this site - there are many irritating things about it but I liked the early 1980s chart where Motorhead and Brahms were fighting it out to be everyone's favourite. So I started to write reviews of albums I had been listening to. I am a musical ignoramus, lacking any technical understanding, so my reviews are largely attempts to express my reactions, enthusiasms and responses in some roundabout way (which explains my frequent collapse into vague pretentiousness). It seemed a useful discipline, making me stop and think about the music I listen to, rather than just letting it tumble by.

And then films were added and I began to do the same with them. I feel more confident about my understanding of film, but, limiting myself to one paragraph, I often try to shove too much into too small a space and, while I think I know what I’m talking about, it’s possible that no one else does.

And as it takes much less time to watch a 2 hour film than listen to a 45 minute album, I seem to now write about more films than albums. And, like a true fanatic, I find I watch films just so I can review them...even films I have already seen and know I don’t like. It’s also possible that I write less about music now because I have already reviewed a growing percentage of the music I listen to.

I generally 'write' my reviews in my head, often when I'm walking the dog, and then type them up quickly, trying to make them feel spontaneous, but one result of this is that whenever I come across one of my reviews I am always shocked by the typing errors, misspellings, missing words and general grammatical clumsiness - so I wish my skills at proof reading were a little stronger. But as they aren't I hope any reader will overlook the errors. My ambition is to write a review without any spelling mistakes, typing errors, etc. But as yet I don't seem to have managed it. So I have to carry on.