The Saint makes a very welcome return to print in the UK with the publication of two "best of volumes" - and just in time for Christmas too.Each of the volumes contains a selection of Saint short stories covering his entire career of thwarting criminals and poking fun at the law, particularly Inspector Claude Eustace Teal, while enriching himself in the process.
The stories are all an excellent read and the weighty volumes (they are 800 and 600 pages long) are stupid value at a ridiculously low £6 on Amazon.
I started my Saint reading some forty years ago with an earlier collection of short stories, The First Saint Omnibus, and the new books are a good opportunity for new readers to become new fans.
I used to watch The Saint on Swedish TV and remember he drove a Volvo P1800!
ReplyDeleteWell remembered. You can read all about the Saint's Volvos here http://www.saint.org/volvo.htm.
ReplyDeleteI just saw a promo for the upcoming season of "Burn Notice." I can't believe that a new TV or movie series of "The Saint" wouldn't be successful if the right producer, writers and lead actor were found. I suggest Jonathan Rhys Meyers or Alexander Siddig to take over the role of Simon Templar. The Roger Moore episodes were well done for their time. In my opinion an updated or possibly the right "retro" version would go over well (at least in the U.S.) --- especially on a cable network like USA, TNT, SPIKE, etc. I hope there are new attempts to bring "The Saint" back to TV or possibly to start a movie series similar to the James Bond movies. I think the Leslie Charteris character and stories are very worthy of continuing to live today and that new stories using his character would also do well if they try to stay as true to the original as possible. It's good to see the original stories are being re-released in this "Best of..." format. I hope sales are strong and justify further interest in creating a new version of "The Saint" for a TV or movie series.
ReplyDeleteI just saw a promo for the upcoming season of "Burn Notice." I can't believe that a new TV or movie series of "The Saint" wouldn't be successful if the right producer, writers and lead actor were found. I think good choices for actors to play Simon Templar are Jonathan Rhys Meyers or Alexander Siddig. The Roger Moore episodes were well done for their time. In my opinion an updated or possibly the right "retro" version would go over well (especially in the U.S.) on a cable network like USA, TNT, SPIKE, etc. I hope there are new attempts to bring "The Saint" back to TV or possibly to start a movie series similar to the James Bond movies. I think the Leslie Charteris character and stories are very worthy of continuing to live today and that new stories using his character would also do well if they try to stay as true to the original as possible. It's good to see that at least the original stories are being re-released in print. Hopefully the sales will be strong so that can add to the justification for a new TV or movie series.
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