Books

The Pleasure’s All Mine, by Julie Peakman – review

12 December 2013 3:00 pm

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Answers to ‘Spot the Play Title’

12 December 2013 3:00 pm

1. Cat Honour Hot Tin Roof 2. Frank Hen Stein 3. Ark A Deer 4. Hammer Day S 5. Hiss…

Spot the play title

12 December 2013 3:00 pm

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The Pleasure’s All Mine, by Julie Peakman – review

12 December 2013 3:00 pm

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

Books and Arts

7 December 2013 9:00 am

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If only Craig Raine subjected his own work to the same critical scrutiny he applies to others' 

7 December 2013 9:00 am

Debunking reputations is now out of fashion, says Philip Hensher, and Craig Raine should give it up — especially as he always misses the point

'Here's looking at you, kid' —  the best lines from the movies

7 December 2013 9:00 am

Many of us, I get the feeling, don’t go and see as many films as we used to, or want…

Google Images can't spoil the fun — here are the most gorgeous art books of the season

7 December 2013 9:00 am

Good news for the festive season — the inexorable rise of the virtual image on our computer screens, tablets, and…

The mad, mum-fixated maiden aunt of modernism

7 December 2013 9:00 am

Marianne Moore’s poems are notoriously ‘difficult’ but her personality and the circumstances of her life are as fascinating today as…

Curtains for kitty! How to care for cats — and how to kill them

7 December 2013 9:00 am

The New Yorker has always had a peculiar affinity with cats, perhaps because they have a lot in common —…

Hugo Rifkind's My Week reminds me why it's worth getting up on Saturdays

7 December 2013 9:00 am

‘Nothing’s funny any more’ has become the daily mantra of this magazine’s cartoon editor, Michael Heath. Thanks to Leveson, political…

The book that Boris should give to all seniors, along with their Freedom Passes

7 December 2013 9:00 am

The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a story for the older reader. One might go so far as to suggest…

A well-laden supper table, according to Mrs Beeton, set for 16, with an exotic central floral arrangement (1861)

Famous female cooks, a juicy salmon recipe from 1664 — and the only interesting thing about Mrs Beeton

7 December 2013 9:00 am

In Cooking People  Sophia Waugh describes, with dash and wit, the personalities of five important women cookery writers: two Hannahs…

What family life — and love — was like in East Germany

7 December 2013 9:00 am

Historians still argue over whether the regime of the GDR can be called a totalitarian one. Some say that the…

In the steppes of a warlord

30 November 2013 9:00 am

Joanna Kavenna is impressed by one man’s 6,000-mile ride through some of the loneliest regions on earth

Margaret Drabble tries to lose the plot

30 November 2013 9:00 am

Halfway through her new novel, Margaret Drabble tells us of Anna, the pure gold baby of the title, ‘There was…

You'll probably find this book about the ruthlessness of Amazon at a sharp discount on Amazon

30 November 2013 9:00 am

Do you love Amazon? I have to admit that I do, and that I buy books from it far more…

Ann Patchett's new book will win you over, in spite of yourself

30 November 2013 9:00 am

Ann Patchett’s novels revel in the tightly constructed ecosystems imagined for their characters: an opera singer besieged among diplomats in…

The best children's books for Christmas

30 November 2013 9:00 am

Animal stories for children are always tricky; as J.R.R. Tolkien observed in his essay on fairy stories, you can end…

What's notable about 'a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife'? 

30 November 2013 9:00 am

In the reminiscences of Bertie Wooster we find this: As I sat in the bathtub, soaping a meditative foot and…

Angel, by Elizabeth Taylor - review

30 November 2013 9:00 am

‘She wrote fiction?’ Even today, with the admirable ladies at Virago nearly finished reissuing her dozen novels, Elizabeth Taylor remains…

A book on Art Deco that's a work of art in itself — but where's the Savoy, Claridge's and the Oxo Tower? 

30 November 2013 9:00 am

Over the past 45 years, there have been two distinct and divergent approaches to Art Deco. One of them —…

'God has given me a new Turkish colleague called Mustapha Kunt...'

30 November 2013 9:00 am

Under normal circumstances, Simon Garfield’s chatty and informative excursion into the history of letter-writing would be a book to recommend.…

When Francis Davison made me judge — and burn — his art

30 November 2013 9:00 am

In 1983, Damien Hirst saw an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of the collages of Francis Davison which ‘blew him…

Have a crime-filled Christmas

30 November 2013 9:00 am

Pity the poor novelist whom commercial pressures trap within a series, doomed with each volume to diminish the stock of…