fri 29/08/2025

book reviews and features

Kate Lebo: The Book of Difficult Fruit review - a rich, juicy delight

Jessica Payn

Two years ago, I became preoccupied with beetroot. I didn’t want to eat it, particularly, or learn new ways to cook this crimson-purple veg. Instead I hunted down stories of the “beet-rave”, as it...

Read more...

Michael Spitzer: The Musical Human review - charting our age-old relationship with music

Jon Turney

Music and time each dwell inside the other. And the more you attend to musical sounds, the more complex their temporal entanglements become....

Read more...

Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott: Failures of State review - a devastating exposé, slightly mistimed

Sarah Collins

Almost a year ago, in the midst of the first national lockdown, The Sunday Times broke the news that Boris Johnson had failed to attend five consecutive Cobra meetings in the lead up to...

Read more...

Polly Barton: Fifty Sounds review - what is lost in translation

India Lewis

Fifty Sounds is translator Polly Barton’s first novel, conceived as part of Fitzcarraldo’s annual...

Read more...

Andrea Bajani: If You Kept a Record of Sins review - where blame, grief and discovery meet

Jessica Payn

“I think it happened to you, too, the first time you arrived.” So begins Andrea Bajani’s second novel (...

Read more...

Will Page: Tarzan Economics - a 'rockonomist' writes

Sebastian Scotney

The idea behind Tarzan Economics is, in its essence, that “if the vine we are holding onto is withering, we can have confidence to reach out for a new one.” This thesis expounded in Will...

Read more...

Extract: TV by Susan Bordo

theartsdesk

"Television and I grew up together." As a baby boomer born in 1947, Susan Bordo is roughly the same age as our beloved gogglebox, which began life as a broad box with a ten-inch screen, chunky and...

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Author Sam Mills on the phenomenon of the 'chauvo-feminist'

CP Hunter

Sam Mills’s writing includes the wondrously weird novel The Quiddity of Will Self, the semi-memoir Fragments of My Father, and Chauvo-Feminism (The Indigo Press), which...

Read more...

Charles Saumarez Smith: The Art Museum In Modern Times review – the story of modern architecture

Daniel Baksi

“This book is a journey of historical discovery, set out sequentially in order to convey a sense of what has changed over time.” Add to this sentence, the title of the work from which it is taken...

Read more...

Craig Taylor: New Yorkers - A City and Its People in Our Time review

Liz Thomson

For the last couple of years, until we were so rudely interrupted, I’d been spending chunks of the year in New York, a city I’ve come to know...

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 £49,000 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

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
theartsdesk Q&A: Suranne Jones on 'Hostage', p...

If she decided to run for election, Suranne Jones would probably stand a good chance of winning. The Chadderton-born actress and...

Little Trouble Girls review - masterful debut breathes new l...

Taking its title from a Sonic Youth track whose lyrics describe someone who seems good on the outside but is bad inside, this debut...

Young Mothers review - the Dardennes explore teenage motherh...

“Not even an animal would do what she did.” Jessica (Babette Verbeek) is speaking about her biological mother, who abandoned her when she was a...

BBC Proms: The Marriage of Figaro, Glyndebourne Festival rev...

One door closes, and another one opens. A lot. It’s extraordinary what value those two simple additions to the Royal Albert Hall stage lent to...

Fat Ham, RSC, Stratford review - it's Hamlet Jim, but n...

$8.2B. That’s what can happen when you re-imagine ...

King & Conqueror, BBC One review - not many kicks in 106...

In this strangely dreary recreation of 11th century history, it’s not just grim oop north, it’s grim everywhere. King & Conqueror...

Juniper Blood, Donmar Warehouse review - where ideas and ide...

Playwright Mike Bartlett is, like many writers, a chronicler of both contemporary manners and of the state of the nation. In his latest domestic...

Album: The Hives - The Hives Forever, Forever The Hives

The Hives must be one of the most self-assured bands around – but not without good reason. Ever exuberant, all their tunes are short and sweet,...

BBC Proms: Faust, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Nelsons revie...

Does the orchestra that sways together play together? Quite apart from their (reliably gorgeous) sound, the tight-packed strings of the...

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