The book I’m currently readingThe Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner. It’s a long, dense book about medieval nuns. What’s not to like? It’s witty, knowledgeable, and gently on the side of women and their lot. The book that changed my lifeI think that has to be The Rainbow by DH Lawrence. I […]
The crime writer, whose new Rebus novel is “In a House of Lies,” is giving his archives to the National Library of Scotland: “There might be material there for some future Ph.D. researcher … long after I’m dead.” What books are on your nightstand? Too many! The latest offerings from Michael Connelly (“Dark Sacred Night”) […]
To the uninitiated, the idea of Irish science fiction seems slightly odd; the country’s culture is generally assumed to be more invested in the past than the future, and to value the fantastic over the supposedly rational. But it may not be quite as absurd a notion as it once was: Ireland is now as […]
The louche, addled aristocrat Patrick Melrose is dining in New York with Marianne, an old friend of a friend who doesn’t drink because it “dulls the senses and blurs the edges”. “Your point being?” Melrose replies. In the opening episode of this stunning five-part drama, adapted by David Nicholls from Edward St Aubyn’s semi-autobiographical novels, […]
Season 4, Episode 7: ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ This was an episode full of absent things. In fact, we don’t see Jamie or Claire at all. Instead, their daughter, Brianna, heads back in time to the Scottish Highlands (also absent from this season so far) and runs into some very familiar faces. Even then, this […]
Children’s books have had a record-breaking few years. The sector was worth £381.9m in 2017, according to Nielsen BookScan, and 2018 may well top that. One in every three physical books sold is now a children’s book. Judging by bestseller charts and supermarket displays you’d be forgiven for thinking that most of those were by […]
In March 2017, Eliza Dushku, an actress known for her work on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” signed on to play a major role in three episodes of the CBS prime-time drama “Bull,” and there were plans to make her a full-time cast member. Her time on the set began promisingly. The show’s star, Michael Weatherly […]
The author, most recently, of the poetry collection “Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart” feels a duty to read about countries devastated by war: “The suffering, usually for the most vulnerable, never ends.” What books are on your nightstand? “The Road of Lost Innocence,” by Somaly Mam, about child-selling, enslavement and sadistic “sex” trafficking […]
Twenty-eight years after he died, the medals Roald Dahl earned for his time as an RAF fighter pilot during the second world war have finally arrived with his family. Dahl’s grandson, Ned Donovan, said that the medals had been delivered from the Ministry of Defence on Wednesday, and that he had given them to the […]
When Aimée Felone and David Stevens opened their pop-up children’s bookshop in Brixton in October, featuring only books with black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) protagonists, they had one reaction they weren’t prepared for: a customer burst into tears. “I went and asked her if she was OK,” says Stevens. “She said she’d never seen […]
Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a talky courtroom drama that inspired its own courtroom drama, has finally arrived on Broadway. Can it fly? Mostly. Earlier this year, Harper Lee’s estate had sued the production for characterizations thought to deviate from the 1960 novel. The suit was eventually settled and the production allowed to continue. […]
The television programmes Billy Connolly has made have become increasingly meditative since he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease five years ago. Billy Connolly’s Ultimate World Tour was the latest and gentlest of all, broadcast just after the 76-year-old comedian announced his retirement from live performance. This new travelogue – which is also a look at […]