Music was always Anthony Burgess’s first love
A gifted pianist and composer, Burgess combined his talents in a superb series of music reviews, published for the first time in a complete collection
Dark days in Wales: Of Talons and Teeth, by Niall Griffiths, reviewed
At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution a mountain is being hollowed out for mining, and everyone is covered in mud or worse in this memorable and highly original novel
The real problem with ChatGPT is that it can never make a joke
When Andy Stanton commands the AI program to tell him a story about a blue whale with a tiny penis, the result, as it unfolds, drives him a bit insane
Unfinished business in Berlin: The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron, reviewed
How it all began: Di Taverner, Service legend David Cartwright and the rest of the Slow Horses make themselves known to the reader in an origin story disguised as a follow-up
Another tragic case involving medical incompetence and cover-up
John Niven had to fight hard to discover why his suicidal brother was left alone and unmonitored in an Ayrshire hospital, with fatal consequences
A born storyteller
Instead of swashbuckling, we get the Parisian art world, trout-fishing, unhappy couples and surrogate parenting – though the 20 stories for children are full of adventure
Advice to struggling writers
Broad in scope and beautifully written, this unconventional autobiography contains some of the best advice struggling writers will ever receive
Judge, jury and executioner
‘Immediate Justice’, the government’s new policing initiative of pursuing petty criminals, reflects the black-clad law-enforcer’s 1970s methods exactly
How hardboiled detective fiction saved James Ellroy
After his mother’s murder, the teenage Ellroy seemed lost to speed and alcohol – until his discovery of crime writing led to a different addiction
If Lady Mendl didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent her
The flamboyant hostess and ‘psychic’ interior decorator does seem like a comic creation – but she was real enough, and perhaps madder than Ludwig Bemelmans lets on
The art of exclamation marks!
For centuries, grammarians considered it vulgar and warned against using it too freely – but Jane Austen saw the point of it, says Florence Hazrat
How to avoid paying London’s Ulez charge
How to beat London’s Ulez charge
A ghoulish afterlife: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, by Shehan Karunatilaka, reviewed
Ten years ago Shehan Karunatilaka’s first novel, Chinaman, was published and I raved about it, as did many others. Set…
Aleister Crowley was even more beastly than we’d imagined
I have never had much time for Aleister Crowley. Magic(k) is nonsense; the mystical societies he founded were simply pretexts…
The Everybody Inn: what happened when a hotel opened its doors to the homeless?
What do you do when you pass someone sleeping or begging in the street? I’ll tell you what I do:…
The boys who never grow up: Sad Little Men, by Richard Beard, reviewed
I can’t recall reading an angrier book than this. Richard Beard has written what I hope for his sake is…
Tenderness and sorrow: Inside Story, by Martin Amis, reviewed
Inside Story is called, on the front cover, which boasts a very charming photograph of the author and Christopher Hitchens,…
Our recent stockpiling is nothing to what ‘preppers’ lay in store
This book could not have been published at a better time — nor, in a way, at a worse time.…
There are more negatively-loaded words than positive ones — so what?
Negativity has a power over us. You know how it is. One bad thing can ruin your whole day, even…
At long last love: Live a Little, by Howard Jacobson, reviewed
Towards the end of Live a Little, one of its two main characters says: ‘I’m past the age of waiting…
‘You don’t want to end up like us’: How I got out of Soho just in time
On the one hand, I am supremely qualified to review this book. In 1984, bored beyond endurance after graduating with…
A melancholy talent with a genius for send-up – Flann O’Brien was his own worst enemy
It is tempting to compare two highly intelligent, learned and gifted young Dublin writers, suffering under the burdensome, Oedipal influence…
From Don Quixote to My Struggle — a survey of the novel in 160 pages
I wonder what your idea of a good novel is. Does it embody the attributes of solid plotting, characterisation and…
How one man took on the French betting system — and kept winning against the odds
About a third of the way through this book I worked out that I had an unbeatable system for winning…
Risking all for the perfect mocha coffee
‘This guy’s crazy,’ says a taxi driver, listening to a BBC interview with a man who has decided to become…
