Disney’s secret weapon

There is a squat little warehouse in Glendale, LA that few people get to see inside. It’s Disney’s Fort Knox, the place that houses decades of illustrations and mountains of work. Our own Steven MacKenzie got in last week and discovered how Disney used it to plot Maleficent, the Angelina Jolie major movie. He spoke to the keepers and to Disney seniors about how the material in this humble building holds Disney’s plans for their future. An illuminating feature.

And more…

Our Letter To My Younger Self is with Stephen Mangan. Prepare to be moved. It’s a piece marked by the early death of his mother …

John Bird considers the price and the value of books, especially once they drop in price online. A great adoration for Maigret novels features.

Captain Mike Martin wrote a book about the British military in Afghanistan that upset the top brass so much they tried to ban it. Which is odd as they sent for him and put him in Afghanistan to write it. Adam Forrest speaks to him about some of his claims, amongst them that there isn’t really such a thing as the Taliban.

Like a nimble dancer, Samira Ahmed moves from 1970s game shows to ideas of personal betterment, pre-Glasnost Soviet Union and affordable housing. Quite a column.

Richard Bacon talks about his love of science. And the benefits of having Professor Brian Cox as a dinner guest.

Our featured vendor telling their story in My Pitch is Hugo Elliot, working in Bristol. A keen reader and a fan of libraries, he lives in a friend’s truck at the moment, and plays back gammon by torch light.

Also, let me direct you towards Mitch Blunt’s brilliant books page illustration (they’re always great, but this particularly has something about it) and Sam Delaney’s latest trip into the heart of darkness, using Broadcast Reviews as his loose McGuffin.