Christopher Tookey has seen at least 10,000 films. For eight years, he was TV and then film critic for the Sunday Telegraph. For twenty years, he was sole film critic for the Daily Mail and the world’s most popular internet newspaper, Mail Online. In 2013, he won the award Arts Reviewer of the Year from the London Press Club.

Tookey’s Talkies is a book celebrating 144 of the great movies of the last 25 years. They range from movies that are generally accepted (from The Artist to Toy Story) through to films Christopher liked much more than his colleagues.

These include a very wide variety of films, from the memorably horrific Japanese film Audition to the courageous Chinese drama To Live, via Denmark’s fine political thriller, King’s Game. He also tries to explain why he loved Ed Wood and Isn’t She Great? – both commercial flops – along with such critically underrated movies as Cheri, Separate Lies and The Tourist.

The films collected in this volume are welcome evidence that quality has not yet been drowned out by quantity, and creativity has not been entirely destroyed by commerce. For Christopher, film remains the most exciting and uplifting art form of our times.

Tookey’s Talkies will appeal greatly to the general reader and in particular to all film fans, including those who have followed Christopher’s reviews over the years.