book reviews and features
Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott: Failures of State review - a devastating exposé, slightly mistimed
Wednesday, 14 April 2021
Almost a year ago, in the midst of the first national lockdown, The Sunday Times broke the news that Boris Johnson had failed to attend five consecutive Cobra meetings in the lead up to... Read more... |
Polly Barton: Fifty Sounds review - what is lost in translation
Tuesday, 13 April 2021
Fifty Sounds is translator Polly Barton’s first novel, conceived as part of Fitzcarraldo’s annual... Read more... |
Andrea Bajani: If You Kept a Record of Sins review - where blame, grief and discovery meet
Wednesday, 07 April 2021
“I think it happened to you, too, the first time you arrived.” So begins Andrea Bajani’s second novel (... Read more... |
Will Page: Tarzan Economics - a 'rockonomist' writes
Wednesday, 31 March 2021
The idea behind Tarzan Economics is, in its essence, that “if the vine we are holding onto is withering, we can have confidence to reach out for a new one.” This thesis expounded in Will... Read more... |
Extract: TV by Susan Bordo
Tuesday, 30 March 2021
"Television and I grew up together." As a baby boomer born in 1947, Susan Bordo is roughly the same age as our beloved gogglebox, which began life as a broad box with a ten-inch screen, chunky and... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Author Sam Mills on the phenomenon of the 'chauvo-feminist'
Monday, 29 March 2021
Sam Mills’s writing includes the wondrously weird novel The Quiddity of Will Self, the semi-memoir Fragments of My Father, and Chauvo-Feminism (The Indigo Press), which... Read more... |
Charles Saumarez Smith: The Art Museum In Modern Times review – the story of modern architecture
Thursday, 25 March 2021
“This book is a journey of historical discovery, set out sequentially in order to convey a sense of what has changed over time.” Add to this sentence, the title of the work from which it is taken... Read more... |
Craig Taylor: New Yorkers - A City and Its People in Our Time review
Monday, 22 March 2021
For the last couple of years, until we were so rudely interrupted, I’d been spending chunks of the year in New York, a city I’ve come to know... Read more... |
Prix Pictet: Confinement review - a year in photographs
Thursday, 18 March 2021
Sustainability and the environment are watchwords for the Prix Pictet, the international... Read more... |
Alan Warner: Kitchenly 434 review – dreams and delusions in the backwaters of fame
Wednesday, 17 March 2021
“They think it’s all drugs and sex up here, Mrs H.” “Bless me.” The reality, at Kitchenly Mill Race, runs more to a nice pot of Tetley’s and a plate of Gypsy Creams. But “people are funny around... Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
The Royal Ballet - variations on a comeback
Like the British high street, the once richly diverse landscape of dance ...
Citizen Lane review - fascinating dramadoc about Irish arts...
On first sight, Citizen Lane's appeal may seem limited to those with an...
Hough, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester online rev...
Sir Mark Elder is back with the Hallé for the latest (...
Isserlis, LPO, Elder, Southbank Centre online review – songs...
The Southbank Centre automatically stuck the...
True Mothers review - how many people does it take to raise...
On the 30th floor of a Tokyo apartment building, a charming little boy brushes his teeth, watched over by his smiling mother who sings...
Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty, BBC Two review - wh...
As Line of Duty aficionados debate the identity of H and wonder who DCI Joanne Davidson shares her DNA with, this new three-part series...
The Master Musicians of Joujouka review - a 4000 year-old ro...
The Master Musicians of Joujouka, described by William Burroughs as a “4000 year-old rock’n’roll band”, and recorded by Brian Jones of the Rolling...
Blu-ray: I Was at Home, But...
The term most often used about Berlin director Angela Schanelec’s filmmaking seems to be “elliptical”, and...
Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott: Failures of State re...
Almost a year ago, in the midst of the first national lockdown, The Sunday Times broke the news that Boris Johnson had failed to attend...