book reviews and features
John Tusa: 'the arts must make a noise' - interview
Thursday, 22 February 2018
In our era of 24/7 news, downloadable from anywhere in the world at the touch of an app, it's hard to... Read more... |
Mick Herron: London Rules review - hypnotically fascinating, absolutely contemporary
Sunday, 18 February 2018
London Rules – explicitly cover your arse – is the fifth in the most remarkable and mesmerising series of ... Read more... |
Roma Agrawal: Built review - solid love
Sunday, 11 February 2018
"I've been known to stroke concrete," writes self-professed geek Roma Agrawal – and from the very beginning of her memoir-cum-introduction... Read more... |
Joe Dunthorne: The Adulterants review - a richly illuminating comedy of disappointment
Sunday, 04 February 2018
Joe Dunthorne's debut novel Submarine (2008) burrowed plausibly inside the head of a teenager... Read more... |
Afua Hirsch: Brit(ish) review - essential reading on identity
Sunday, 04 February 2018
Usually extracts in newspapers should stimulate the appetite of the reader to get with it; this is a rare moment when the glimpses afforded to Afua Hirsch’s Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and... Read more... |
Julian Barnes: The Only Story review - passion, pain and sorrow in Surrey
Sunday, 28 January 2018
From his debut Metroland, right up to the Man Booker-winning The Sense of an Ending, the prospect of a road not taken has haunted the mild and mediocre narrators of Julian Barnes... Read more... |
Dave Eggers: The Monk of Mokha review - how to become a grand master of coffee
Sunday, 28 January 2018
A macchiato may never taste the same again. If you’ve ever wondered about the politics and history behind your cup of designer coffee, The Monk of Mokha will answer all your questions,... Read more... |
Bruno Maçães: The Dawn of Eurasia review - middle of nowhere
Sunday, 21 January 2018
Part travelogue and part broad analysis of the current and future challenges facing the EU, the premise of Bruno Maçães’s new book The Dawn of Eurasia is to “use travel to provide an... Read more... |
David Lodge: Writer’s Luck - A Memoir 1976-1991 review - literary days, in detail
Sunday, 14 January 2018
Metaphor, metonymy, simile and synecdoche, anyone? FR Leavis, Roman Jakobson, Jacques Derrida, Frank Kermode? If any of this, and more, turns you on, this lengthy... Read more... |
Nick Coleman: Voices - How a Great Singer Can Change Your Life, review - earworms explored
Sunday, 14 January 2018
Readers familiar with Nick Coleman’s 2012 memoir The Train in the Night will know before embarking on this book that the author suffered the worst possible fate for a music journalist:... Read more... |
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