mon 30/12/2024

book reviews and features

Help to give theartsdesk a future!

theartsdesk

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and...

Read more...

William J. Mann: Bogie & Bacall review - beyond the screen

John Carvill

What is it about Humphrey Bogart? Why does he still spark interest, still feel relevant, so many decades after his death? It’s a complex question and may be impossible to satisfactorily answer,...

Read more...

Jeff Young: Wild Twin review - a box of tricks

India Lewis

The writer, performer, and lecturer Jeff Young’s latest, Wild Twin, tells – ostensibly – the story of his barefoot, Beat-imitative journey through northern Europe in the 1980s. However,...

Read more...

Interview: rising star Chloe Savage on the Arctic, outer space, and igniting children's wonder for the unknown

Rachel Halliburton

How old were you when you first had an image of the Arctic? When you first had that image, what was it that most resonated? Was it its remoteness, the endless snow and ice, the polar bears? Did it...

Read more...

Jon Fosse: Morning and Evening review - after thoughts

Jack Barron

Jon Fosse talks a lot about thinking. He also thinks – hard – about talking. His prolific and award-winning career in poetry, prose, and drama, might be said, in fact, to unfold a digressive...

Read more...

Jean-Baptiste Fressoz: More and More and More review - fuel for thought

Jon Turney

If you are bothered about climate change – and who isn’t? – you’ll soon come...

Read more...

Alan Hollinghurst: Our Evenings review - a gift that keeps on giving

Hugh Barnes

In Alan Hollinghurst’s first novel, The Swimming Pool Library (1988), set during the summer of 1983, the young gay narrator, William Beckwith, lives in Holland Park. That same year and...

Read more...

Jonathan Coe: The Proof of My Innocence review - a whodunnit with a difference

Bernard Hughes

Anyone who has been on a British train in the last ten years will have been irritated to distraction by the inane and ubiquitous “See it, say it, sorted” announcement that punctuates every journey...

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Anna Bogutskaya on her new book about the past decade of horror cinema

Harry Thorfinn-

You may have heard the phrase “elevated horror” being used to describe horror films that lean more toward arthouse cinema, favouring tension and psychological turmoil over jump-...

Read more...

Olga Tokarczuk: The Empusium review - paranoid prose

Issy Brooks-Ward

In his first of a series of meditations on the sickness that was consuming him, John Donne reflected...

Read more...

Pages

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

 

latest in today

Help to give theartsdesk a future!

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some...

The Split: Barcelona, BBC One review - a soapy special with...

Maybe it was the timing, even though most of the action takes place in bright sunlight...

Best of 2024: Visual Arts

I thought I might never be able to say it’s been a great year for...

Spence, Perez, Richardson, Wigmore Hall review - a Shakespe...

“O stay and hear,” sings Twelfth Night’s jester Feste in his song “O mistress mine”, “your true love’s coming,/ That can sing both high...

Best of 2024: Comedy

Looking back over the past 12 months, it struck me how it has been the shows fashioned from personal stories that have stayed with me. It wasn't...

Best of 2024: TV

They say cinema is dying (you never know, they may be wrong), but you can’t help noticing the stampede of movie stars towards TV and streaming....

Best of 2024: Music Reissues Weekly

A reissue can be an aide-mémoire, a reminder that a record which has been off the radar for a while needs revisiting, that it deserves fresh...

Albums of the Year: Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown

Beth Gibbons’s latest album touched me more deeply than most of...

Gavin & Stacey: The Finale, BBC One review - hilarious h...

The most hyped special of the season came to a...

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters