Denis Meikle (–2022)

This book has probably as many admirers as it has critics. In a lot of ways this is by far the best researched book on Hammer on the market. It also covers aspects that not many other books track and offers an enormous insight into Hammer as a company as opposed to a film studio. This is an accountant’s book about Hammer’s history and as such can be quite dry at times. The biggest issue I have with this book is that the author really doesn’t seem to like its subject. At all! I am not a great admirer of fan prose and expect some critical distance, but for crying out loud: Why waste valuable time of your life researching a subject that you can’t stand. Reading through the chapters it is hard to imagine that Meikle could even come up with a Top 5 of Favourite Hammers seeing that he is so critical of most of their films.… (mehr)