book reviews and features
Joanna Cannon: Breaking and Mending review - can you feel too much?
Sunday, 06 October 2019
Joanna Cannon was a wild card. She left school at 15 with one O-level and after various jobs, including working as a barmaid, she was given a place at... Read more... |
Ben Lerner: The Topeka School review - lessons to be learned
Sunday, 06 October 2019
The Topeka School begins with a female listener getting bored of hearing her boyfriend talk. Which did not bode well, as the perspective’s was the boyfriend, and I am a... Read more... |
William Feaver: The Lives of Lucian Freud: Youth 1922-1968 review - a testament of friendship
Sunday, 29 September 2019
Lucian Freud was never an entirely willing subject, but his remark to William Feaver that his... Read more... |
Al Alvarez: 'If I drop dead this minute, I’ve had a terrific time'
Monday, 23 September 2019
We like to think of ourselves as a nation of eccentrics, but some take their patriotic duties more seriously than others. Al Alvarez –... Read more... |
Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey: She Said review – better than the movies
Sunday, 22 September 2019
October 5th in the United States is a day for righteous rage. In 2016 it marked the release of the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape in which Donald Trump made his now-infamous “grab them... Read more... |
10 Questions for author Martin Gayford
Saturday, 21 September 2019
Over the past four decades Martin Gayford, The Spectator’s art critic, has travelled the world, been published in an amazing range of print and digital publications and written more than... Read more... |
Martin Gayford: The Pursuit of Art review - devotion, distilled
Sunday, 15 September 2019
This is a book about experiences that go beyond reading about art. Martin Gayford’s 20 short essays about press trips and self-motivated travel concern meetings – in the flesh, in real time and... Read more... |
Margaret Atwood: The Testaments review - pertinent but lacklustre
Sunday, 08 September 2019
You will doubtless have seen the protestors who dress as Gilean handmaids to protest anti-... Read more... |
William Dalrymple: The Anarchy review – masterly history of the first rogue corporation
Sunday, 08 September 2019
Serious historians don’t much care for counter-factual speculations. Readers, however, often enjoy them. So here’s mine. In 1780, the seemingly invincible forces of the East India Company had... Read more... |
A. N. Wilson: Prince Albert review - entertaining bio is a total treat
Sunday, 01 September 2019
Albertopolis! The Royal Albert Hall, the Albert Memorial and countless Albert Squares, Roads and Streets all commemorate Britain’s uncrowned... Read more... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Album: Architects - The Sky, The Earth & All Between
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They stopped making the BBC’s original Bergerac in 1991, so you can hardly complain that this reboot is premature. John Nettles became...
A Knock on the Roof, Royal Court review - poignant account o...
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The Last Showgirl review - Pamela Anderson stars as a middle...
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The Score, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - curious beast of...
Why is it so hard to write a decent play about Bach? Maybe, in part, because there are no words...
Album: Abel Selaocoe - Hymns of Bantu
The musician Abel Selaocoe reaches out to the ancestors, African and European, continuing a journey that spans continents and centuries, an...
The Ferryman, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin review - Jez Butterwort...
Dublin theatregoers have been inundated with Irish family gatherings concealing secrets or half-buried sorrows, mixing “bog gothic” with very real...