book reviews and features
Anna Reid: A Nasty Little War - The West's Fight to Reverse the Russian Revolution review - home truths
Friday, 01 March 2024
During the Cold War, US presidents often claimed that the West and the Soviet Union had never fought one another directly. This observation... Read more... |
Tom Chatfield: Wise Animals review - on the changing world
Thursday, 22 February 2024
Consider a chimp peeling a stick which it will poke into a termite nest. It strikes us as a human gesture. Our primate cousin is fashioning a tool. Just as important, the peeled stick implies a... Read more... |
Sheila Heti: Alphabetical Diaries review - an A-Z of inner life
Tuesday, 20 February 2024
After a first read of the blurb for Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries, you might be forgiven for assuming that this is merely a gimmick. The book does what it says on the tin: each... Read more... |
David Harsent: Skin review - our strange surfaces
Saturday, 17 February 2024
David Harsent has won a lot of prizes. From the Eric Gregory to the T. S. Eliot, he has carved out a literary career positively glittering... Read more... |
Brian Klaas: Fluke review - why things happen, and can we stop them?
Saturday, 27 January 2024
One day in the early 90s I accepted the offer of a lift from a friend to a university open day I hadn’t been planning to go to. I ended up attending that university and there met my wife, and if I... Read more... |
Richard Schoch: Shakespeare's House review - nothing ill in such a temple
Thursday, 25 January 2024
Richard Schoch, in the subtitle of his new book on Shakespeare’s House, promises something big: “a window onto his life and legacy.” To the disgruntled reader – pushed to the brink... Read more... |
Richard Dorment: Warhol After Warhol review - beyond criticism
Tuesday, 09 January 2024
2023 was a good year for Andy Warhol post-mortems: after Nicole Flattery’s Nothing Special, after... Read more... |
Best of 2023: Books
Sunday, 31 December 2023
From wandering Rachmaninoff to Ulysses tribute, or a poet’s boyhood in Dundee to sleeplessness and arboreal inner lives, our reviewers share their literary picks from 2023. ... Read more... |
First Person: novelist Pip Adam on the sound of injustice
Wednesday, 20 December 2023
I know it rattles me, so I try to prepare for it. But I am never fully prepared for the noise. The correctional facilities I have visited over the last 30 years are noisy places. A secure... Read more... |
Angela Leighton: Something, I Forget review - the art of letting go
Monday, 18 December 2023
Half way through Something, I Forget, in a poem entitled “Returns”, and subtitled “Invasion of Ukraine,... 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...
Album: FaithNYC - Love is a Wish Away
FaithNYC is a vehicle for the singer and songwriter Felice Rosser, an original rooted in reggae...
Perianes, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Payare, Barbica...
When the Venezuelan Rafael Payare was appointed as conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique...
English Teacher, Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow review - Merc...
Props designed like flowers were scattered across the QMU stage for English Teacher's performance. A fitting choice given the Leeds group are...
Kemah Bob, Soho Theatre review - Thailand, massage and menta...
Kemah Bob is a regular on television and radio panel shows and well established on the comedy circuit, but Miss Fortunate is her full-...
[title of show], Southwark Playhouse review - two guys and t...
Not just a backstage musical, a backroom musical!
In the...
Album: Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
The word “mahashmashana” – महामशान in Sanskrit – translates as “great burying ground.” Co-opted as the title of Josh Tillman’s sixth album as...
La Serenissima, Wigmore Hall review - an Italian menu to sav...
For 30 years, La Serenissima have re-mapped the landscape of the Italian Baroque repertoire so that its towering figures, notably Vivaldi, no...
Jon Fosse: Morning and Evening review - after thoughts
Jon Fosse talks a lot about thinking. He also thinks – hard – about talking. His prolific and award-winning career in poetry, prose, and drama,...
Roman Rabinovich, Wigmore Hall review - full tone in four st...
Is this the same Roman Rabinovich who drew harp-like delicacy from one of Chopin’s Pleyel pianos, and seeming authenticity from a 1790s grand...