fri 13/06/2025

book reviews and features

Sunday Book: Donna Leon - Earthly Remains

Liz Thomson

It’s 25 years this year since Donna Leon introduced us to Commissario Guido Brunetti, a man who in his way has done as much for...

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'What did you do?' Actors reveal their Shakespearean secrets

Julian Curry

Much of the brilliance of Shakespeare lies in the openness, or ambiguity, of his texts. Whereas a novelist will often describe a character, an action or a scene in the most minute detail,...

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Sunday Book: Jo Nesbo - The Thirst

Jasper Rees

The jacket designs of Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole thrillers don’t muck about. The novelist’s name with its...

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Michelangelo's Madonna and Child

Alison Cole

Michelangelo's Taddei tondo, which depicts the Madonna and Child with the Infant St John in a rocky landscape, is the only Michelangelo marble in Britain. Currently one of the stars of the...

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Sunday Book: Jean Hanff Korelitz - The Devil and Webster

Matthew Wright

Naomi Roth, president of Webster College, Massachusetts, has come a long way since readers first made her acquaintance in Korelitz’s second...

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Brighton Festival 2017: 12 Free Events

Thomas H Green

The Brighton Festival, which takes place every May, is renowned for its plethora of free events. The 2017 Festival is curated by Guest Director Kate Tempest, the poet, writer and performer,...

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Sunday Book: Min Kym - Gone: A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung

Adam Sweeting

“What’s it like to be a child prodigy?” is a question asked by violinist Min Kym several times...

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Sunday Book: Christian Madsbjerg - Sensemaking

Peter Forbes

Two pernicious practices dominate Christian Madsbjerg's Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm: algorithm addiction and fake philosophy. The author thinks...

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Sunday Book: Yrsa Sigurdardóttir - The Legacy

David Nice

Anyone who's followed Yrsa's earlier novels, many of them featuring down-to-earth attorney Thora...

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Sunday Book: Helen Dunmore - Birdcage Walk

Boyd Tonkin

Birdcage Walk in Bristol really exists. It runs under an arched canopy of branches though a long-disused graveyard in Clifton. At this eerie spot, all that remains of the blitzed church of St...

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