book reviews and features
Claudia Bull |

Strictly speaking, an epistolary novel tells more than one story. You could say, for example, that Dracula is “about” a collection of letters and diary entries and in the same vein, that Claire-Louise Bennett’s new book is “about” a woman’s writing. Really, Big Kiss, Bye-Bye follows the end of a single relationship, but the framing – a journal of sorts, containing various letters and emails – allows Bennett to chart a woman’s shifting, lifelong attitudes to intimacy.

Jim Bob |

For a few months a couple of years ago, when you googled the name Jim Bob, although you’d get a lot of information about me, Jim Bob, the lead singer from 1990s UK indie punk heroes Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, the main image would be a picture of Donald Trump. I never fully understood why. I think it had something to do with the name "Jim Bob" being a thesaurus entry for "redneck".

Tim Cumming
I tried, I really did. Took a shot at my best, and fell short, Yup, I couldn’t get beyond the opening chapters of Dolly Parton’s first novel, written…
Daniel Lewis
There’s something refreshing about fiction you can easily trace back to the question “what if?” What if this or that existed? What would happen…
David Lan
In June 2001 the London Festival of International Theatre brought Amir Nizar Zuabi’s Alive from Palestine to the Royal Court Theatre for one…

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Liz Thomson
Ed Miliband shows us where Britain has gone wrong and how we could put it right
Tim Cumming
From nightingale song to sonic attack via folk rock and the world's greatest songwriter, spring 2021's best music books
Liz Thomson
I'll take Manhattan - any time
Sebastian Scotney
Poet in tune with one of music's greats
Daniel Lewis
Diamond-cut debut catches every glint of our modern malaise
Liz Thomson
No government has attacked the BBC more determinedly than 21st century Conservatives
Daniel Lewis
A canny, occasionally refreshing history arguing for more not less urbanisation
Liz Thomson
Bright white luminescence from an elegant and thought-provoking writer
Charlie Stone
An unhappy life immortalised in one of art's most celebrated sculptures
Claudia Daventry
The award-winning poet introduces her timely sequence mapping out all we have lost
Jasper Rees
Editor turned writer explores toxic friendship in confessional domestic noir
Joseph Walsh
Engaging and comprehensive documentary capturing the brilliance of Morrison's work
Ariana Neumann
Introducing 'When Time Stopped', a powerful new investigative memoir about the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia
Florence Hallett
The stories of five women in Bloomsbury recover lost layers in London's palimpsest
Markie Robson-Scott
A progressive school is under attack in Somerset: will the children survive?
Liz Thomson
You can go home again: a child of Brooklyn writes its biography
Jasper Rees
An encounter with the literary daredevil and critic who published Sylvia Plath
Marina Vaizey
Engrossing and lively volume reveals 'the power behind the throne'
Peter Quantrill
English cricket in more turbulent times, surveyed in self-effacing style with the odd sharply turning delivery
Tim Cumming
Songs inspired by disappearing nature cast their spell
Marina Vaizey
Life, love and art in the City of Lights
Marina Vaizey
The award's half-century has brought scandals aplenty, welcome publicity pay-offs, too
Markie Robson-Scott
Two families, two eras, and the failure of the American Dream
Marina Vaizey
Towards an ever-new world: essays on the challenge of adapting to constant change

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