book reviews and features
Kelefa Sanneh: Major Labels review - diary of an omnivorous musicophile
Wednesday, 14 December 2022
Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres is American critic Kelefa Sanneh’s ambitious survey of musical history. As such, it risks remaining only a... Read more... |
10 Questions for Bruce Lindsay, biographer of Ivor Cutler
Tuesday, 13 December 2022
Ivor Cutler: A Life Outside the Sitting Room by Bruce Lindsay, is the first full-length... Read more... |
Patrick Duff: The Singer review - agony and ecstasy of a rock'n'roll life
Tuesday, 13 December 2022
As our favourite rock stars become elders, there has been a steady flow of autobiographies, some ghosted, some... Read more... |
Patti Smith: A Book of Days review - adding to Insta's debris
Wednesday, 23 November 2022
On April Fool’s Day, in 1978, the godmother of American punk, Patti Smith, jumped offstage at the Rainbow Theatre in... Read more... |
Derek Owusu: Losing the Plot review - the finest perfume
Thursday, 10 November 2022
Derek Owusu’s debut That Reminds Me won the Desmond Elliot Prize in 2020. When asked what it was that she loved most about Owusu’s semi-autobiographical 117-page book, Preti Taneja, chair... Read more... |
Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of the Imagination, Science Museum review - travel to a galaxy not so far away
Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Scenes that stay in the mind: Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator peeling back the skin on his forearm to reveal the gleaming machinery within; a beady-eyed, new-born Alien bursting from John... Read more... |
Annie Proulx: Fen, Bog & Swamp review - defending the wetlands' bounty
Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Annie Proulx’s Fen, Bog & Swamp sees the Pulitzer-winning novelist join a number of authors decrying the ecological devastation we’re wreaking on the planet. James Rebanks’ ... Read more... |
Cormac McCarthy: The Passenger review - abstruse, descriptive, digressive
Tuesday, 25 October 2022
Cormac McCarthy’s first books in over a decade are coming out this year, a month apart from one another. The Passenger tells the story of deep-sea diver Bobby Western, desperately in love... Read more... |
Mariana Enriquez: Our Share of Night review - delving into a violent, erotic world
Monday, 24 October 2022
Tense with horror and the sticky darkness of the Argentinian night, Mariana Enriquez’s writing is rich and occult. Her epic novel, Our Share of Night, vividly translated from the Spanish... Read more... |
William Boyd: The Romantic review - historical soap opera, anyone?
Saturday, 22 October 2022
Writing in the Edinburgh Review in 1814, Francis Jeffrey began his review of Wordsworth’s The Excursion with a provocative denunciation of romanticism: “This will never do,” he... Read more... |
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Close-Up: The Twiggy Musical, Menier Chocolate Factory revie...
The Biba dresses are way too colourful, the shop’s interior about 10 times too bright… and did anybody really say ”happening threads”...
The Creator review - bold, beautiful, flawed sci-fi epic
It has been seven years since Gareth Edwards directed, for me, the best of the new generation of Star Wars films, Rogue One. Having made...
Falstaff, Opera North review - going green and having fun
There’s a charmingly retro feel to Opera North’s new Falstaff, which comes from it being done as part of their new “...
The Old Oak review - a searing ode to solidarity
Ken Loach has occasionally invested his realist TV dramas and movies with moments of magical realism – football inspiring them in The Golden...
Unbelievable, Criterion Theatre review - Derren Brown-direct...
Unbelievable is a strange title for a slightly strange show, the brainchild of Derren Brown, Andrew O’Connor and Andy Nyman, a...
Black Sabbath: The Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingh...
These days Black Sabbath aren’t short of admirers in the arts and even further afield. Artists as disparate as veteran soul man, Charles Bradley...
Album: Jorja Smith - Falling or Flying
Jorja Smith said she named her new album Falling or Flying to describe the uncertainty she’s felt about her career following the success...
Fung, RPO, Schwarz, Cadogan Hall review - high style from ne...
You go to a concert, three-quarters of it popular classics – also great masterpieces – having been told you have to hear a brilliant young cellist...
Michael Peppiatt: Giacometti in Paris review - approaching t...
We begin with a dead-end. In 1966, Michael Peppiatt – at the time “an obscure young man” – travelled to...
Album: Oneohtrix Point Never - Again
The music of Daniel Lopatin – AKA Oneohtrix Point Never – exists at the sonic/...