wed 22/03/2023

book reviews and features

John Man: Amazons review - the real warrior women of the ancient world

mark Kidel

As Wonder Woman hits screens worldwide, the publication of a book that explores the myth and...

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David Sedaris: Theft By Finding review - comic literary talent of historic value

Matthew Wright

In a voice of distinctive, high-pitched nasal whimsy, comic essayist and memoirist David Sedaris finds humour with the precision of a mosquito after blood. British...

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Andrew O'Hagan: The Secret Life review – troubling tales from the online underground

Boyd Tonkin

Imagine that you come across a story by a journalist who, writing for the Daily Mail or The Sun, steals the identity of a real young man from a poor neighbourhood of south-east...

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Elif Batuman: The Idiot review - memories of student life and travels meander

Marina Vaizey

University, anyone? Student days? If you were ever an undergraduate, who does not remember the simultaneous sense of dislocation and excitement, the feeling of the familiar combined with a heady...

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Peter Ackroyd: Queer City - London's gay life over two millennia

Tom Birchenough

2017 is proving the year of celebrating queer. To mark 50 years of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, we...

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Evgeny Kissin: Memoirs and Reflections review - Russian education, European conviction, Jewish heritage

David Nice

"Generally speaking," writes Evgeny Kissin in one of the many generous tributes to those whose artistry he most admires, "the mastery of [Carlo Maria] Giulini is exactly what is dearest of all to...

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Hanif Kureishi, Brighton Festival review - a combative, funny and moving talk

Nick Hasted

Hanif Kureishi and his interviewer Mark Lawson are both wearing black Nike trainers, and long professional acquaintance makes them as comfortable with each other as...

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Arundhati Roy: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness review - brilliant fragments of divided India

Boyd Tonkin

Just as in the United States, the quest among Indian authors in English to deliver the single, knock-out...

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Billy Bragg: Roots, Radicals and Rockers review - riffing on skiffle, and more besides

Liz Thomson

Wow! An unconventional opening for a book review maybe, but ‘“wow!” nonetheless. Subtitled "How Skiffle Changed the World", this is an...

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Muhsin Al-Ramli: 'During Saddam’s regime at least we knew who the enemy was' - interview

Rachel Halliburton

Saddam Hussein’s name is never mentioned in The President’s Gardens, even though he haunts every page. The one time that the reader encounters him directly, he is referred to simply by...

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latest in today

The Chevalier, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - virtuoso jou...

Shimmeringly urbane, shifting effortlessly from intricate agility to muscular intensity, the music of the 18th century composer Joseph Bologne is...

First Person: Anna Clyne on composing collaborations, not ba...

Collaboration fuels a lot of my music – I love the interaction that takes me outside of my natural tendencies – it’s a source of...

Robert Forster, Lafayette review - élan, spontaneity and tho...

“Learn to Burn” generates the loudest and most sustained applause. As it was originally the opening track of Robert Forster’s 2015 album Songs...

Album: Black Honey - A Fistful of Peaches

There’s a disconnect on the third album by Brighton rockers Black Honey. The music is rousing post-grunge indie...

Turandot, Royal Opera review - spectacle and sound wow in th...

Nearly 40 years old, Andrei Serban’s Royal Opera Turandot feels like a gilded relic (I felt like a relic myself on learning that my...

Osborne, RSNO, Chan, Usher Hall, Edinburgh - cinematic sweep...

Two women featured prominently in this programme; the one a composer and the other a conductor.

To the composer first. Long before she hit...

The Beasts review - a countryside idyll loses its charm

The Beasts (As Bestas) is all of two hours and 17 minutes long, and yet to look away is never an option. ...

DVD/Blu-ray: Living

Mr Williams (a wonderfully restrained, Oscar-nominated Bill Nighy) is taking time off work from his job in the Public Works department at County...

Dance of Death, National Theatre of Norway, Coronet Theatre...

You don’t have to be Scandinavian to act out Strindberg’s fantastical extremes at the highest level, but I’ve not seen any British performers come...

Allelujah review - Alan Bennett put through the blender

I'm proffering just a tad less than three cheers for Allelujah, the film version of...

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