book reviews and features
Anna Neima: The Utopians review – after horror, six quests for the good life
Tuesday, 15 June 2021
Not long after the Nazis came to power, Eberhard Arnold sent a manifesto to Adolf Hitler. The Protestant preacher urged the dictator to “embrace universal love”. With his wife Emmy, Eberhard had... Read more... |
Victoria Mas: The Mad Women's Ball review - compelling plot meets disquieting history
Tuesday, 15 June 2021
To this day, if you take a stroll down Paris’ Boulevard de l’Hôpital, you’ll come across an imposing building: the... Read more... |
Extract: David Lan's As If By Chance
Monday, 14 June 2021
In June 2001 the London Festival of International Theatre brought Amir Nizar Zuabi’s Alive from ... Read more... |
Elinor Cleghorn: Unwell Women review – misunderstanding and misdiagnosis
Monday, 14 June 2021
I’m one of the women in the pages of Elinor Cleghorn’s new history of the female body, Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World. I’ve dealt with strange... Read more... |
Ed Miliband: Go Big - How to Fix Our World review - reasons to hope
Monday, 07 June 2021
Almost alone among my friends, I liked and admired Ed Miliband, renewing my on-off relationship with the Labour... Read more... |
Nichola Raihani: The Social Instinct review - the habits of co-operation
Friday, 04 June 2021
An army on the move must be as disturbing as it is, on occasion, inspiring. In E.L. Doctorow’s startlingly good civil war novel The March, General Sherman’s column proceeds inexorably... Read more... |
Kylie Whitehead: Absorbed review - boundary-blurry, darkly funny debut
Wednesday, 02 June 2021
Absorbed meets Allison at the end of her relationship with Owen. They are at a New Year's Eve party when she realises that their 10-year partnership has wound down. So far, so normal. But... Read more... |
Rosie Wilby: The Breakup Monologues review - do breakups make us stronger, better people?
Tuesday, 01 June 2021
According to Rosie Wilby, “breaking up and staying together are simply two sides of the same coin. They are a flick of a switch apart, separated only by one fleeting moment of madness, or perhaps... Read more... |
Natasha Brown: Assembly review - turning personal crisis into perfect criticism
Monday, 31 May 2021
School assembly: one of the many great traditions to be upended by the pandemic. According to this... Read more... |
Esther Freud: I Couldn't Love You More review - the alternative history of a pregnancy
Friday, 28 May 2021
The glamorous unreliability of Esther Freud’s father, Lucian Freud, is an inescapable force in her... Read more... |
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Tori and Lokita review - a masterpiece of humanist cinema
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes are Belgium’s national conscience. The brothers, who have been sharing the roles of writer-director-producer since...
The Kola Nut Does Not Speak English, Bush Studio review - an...
The Bush studio space is proving a fruitful launch pad, not just for...
Album: Olly Murs - Marry Me
Oh dear. 10 songs of very little consequence. And one which has sparked “controversy”. "I Hate You When You're...
Tokyo Vice, BBC One review - murder, extortion and corruptio...
There was originally a plan to make Tokyo Vice a movie starring Daniel Radcliffe, but it has ended up as a TV series starring Ansel...
Album: White Lung - Premonition
In 2016’s abrasive album opener, "Dead Weight", frontwoman Mish Barber-Way laments over multiple miscarriages as her biological clock ticks away...
Christian Gerhaher, Gerold Huber, Wigmore Hall review - mute...
There is no mistaking Christian Gerhaher. His voice is a light, agile baritone, and it is utterly distinctive. He is a very verbal singer, and is...
Neil Young: Harvest Time review - a thrillingly intimate fly...
“You’re filmin’ a movie or something – can you explain this?” the radio DJ turns to Neil Young, a laugh underpinning his question and setting the...
BBC National Chorus of Wales, BBC NOW, Jeannin, BBC Hoddinot...
There are conductors, and then again there are...
Album: Leftfield - This Is What We Do
This Is What We Do is only Leftfield’s fourth album in a career that has lasted almost 35 years (on and off). But if there is a...
Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Harry Baker, Noisenight 13, Jazz Cafe...
The elation in the queue was palpable as people stood laughing and chatting in the November cold waiting for the doors of the Jazz Café to open...