Compass A&E

If you are looking to get into the Halloween spirit and learn about the history of horror film, this is your year to hit up big-screen October showings in the Tristate region. Between these four events, you can get the full range of horror film history and genres.

It’s Alive: The Horror Film Is Born

Award-winning history teacher Peter Vermilyea from Housatonic Valley Regional High School will talk about his seasonally appropriate book,  “Witches in Litchfield County,” on a Zoom presentation through the Minor Memorial Library in Roxbury, Conn., on Wednesday, Oct. 20, at 5.30 p.m.

The Sharon Audubon Center on Route 4 in Sharon, Conn., is hosting a Pumpkin Trail, open daily from dawn until dusk from Thursday, Oct. 28, through Thursday, Nov. 11, with special night time viewing events on Friday, Oct. 29, and Saturday, Oct. 30, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. (BYO flashlight).

A new show of work by painter Chris Pouler of Salisbury, Conn., opens at the Warren Family Gallery at the Berkshire School in Sheffield, Mass., with a reception on Friday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The show runs through Dec. 18.

Every autumn I reread old favorites from Robert Parker, Rex Stout, Eric Ambler. 

And P.G. Wodehouse.

It’s hard to find a writer with a better grasp of the language than Wodehouse. 

For example:

Hardly anybody walks or comes into a room.

In Wodehouse World, they ankle, or sidle, or charge, or curvet.

The Brits undeniably produce the finest cop shows. My five favorites are below, but I know there are many more candidates. If you send me your choices (with comment if you like), I will include them in a future column. 

‘Happy Valley’

Perhaps it’s because this has been such an outstandingly horrible two years, or maybe it’s because we’re all wearing masks anyway so why not just go Full Halloween Costume?

Whatever the reason, there seems to be a super abundance of Halloween events planned for this year. 

So far, here’s what we know:

Authors from our area have recently published four vastly different books.

‘Living Cancer’

Dr. Michael Weiner of Salisbury, Conn., was a pediatric cancer specialist for nearly five decades — and was also the parent of a child with cancer.