book reviews and features
'What did you do?' Actors reveal their Shakespearean secrets
Sunday, 23 April 2017
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,... Read more... |
Sunday Book: Jo Nesbo - The Thirst
Sunday, 16 April 2017
The jacket designs of Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole thrillers don’t muck about. The novelist’s name with its... Read more... |
Michelangelo's Madonna and Child
Sunday, 16 April 2017
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... Read more... |
Sunday Book: Jean Hanff Korelitz - The Devil and Webster
Sunday, 09 April 2017
Naomi Roth, president of Webster College, Massachusetts, has come a long way since readers first made her acquaintance in Korelitz’s second... Read more... |
Brighton Festival 2017: 12 Free Events
Thursday, 06 April 2017
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,... Read more... |
Sunday Book: Min Kym - Gone: A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung
Sunday, 02 April 2017
“What’s it like to be a child prodigy?” is a question asked by violinist Min Kym several times... Read more... |
Sunday Book: Christian Madsbjerg - Sensemaking
Sunday, 26 March 2017
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... Read more... |
Sunday Book: Yrsa Sigurdardóttir - The Legacy
Sunday, 19 March 2017
Anyone who's followed Yrsa's earlier novels, many of them featuring down-to-earth attorney Thora... Read more... |
Sunday Book: Helen Dunmore - Birdcage Walk
Sunday, 12 March 2017
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... Read more... |
Sunday Book: George Saunders - Lincoln in the Bardo
Sunday, 05 March 2017
George Saunders has written a historical novel. Of course, this being Saunders, author of four volumes of... 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...
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning review - can this...
Whether it is or isn’t the final Mission: Impossible film, there’s a distinct fin-de-siècle feel about this eighth instalment, and not...
Code of Silence, ITVX review - inventively presented reality...
In the guided tour of Britain’s cathedral cities that is the primetime TV...
Pygmalion, Early Opera Company, Curnyn, Middle Temple Hall r...
With French baroque opera all but banished from the UK’s major...
Album: Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Stereolab always walked a knife edge between deadly serious and dead silly. Their sound was constructed around the sort of reference points –...
The Fifth Step, Soho Place review - wickedly funny two-hande...
The plays of David Ireland have a tendency to build to an explosion, after long stretches of caustic dialogue and very funny banter....
Josefowicz, LSO, Mälkki, Barbican review - two old favourite...
Every now and then a concert programme comes along that fits like a bespoke suit, and this one could have been specially designed for me. Two...
Mr Swallow: Show Pony, Richmond Theatre review - magic trick...
Nick Mohammed invented his Mr Swallow character – camp, lisping, with an inflated ego and the mistaken belief that he has creative...
The Great Escape Festival 2025, Brighton review - a feast of...
Photographer Finetime and I have our first pints outside Dalton’s, a bar on...
Parsifal, Glyndebourne review - the music flies up, the dram...
There’s a grail, but it doesn't glow in a mundane if perverted Christian ritual. Three of the main characters have young and old actor versions...