Book review – memoir
Girl about town — on a bicycle
The old ditty got it wrong: it should have been ‘Maybe it’s because I’m not a Londoner that I love…
Writing a bestseller ‘on the verge of a stroke’
Every four seconds, somewhere in the world, a Lee Child book is sold. This phenomenal statistic places Child alongside Stephen…
What happened to British communism?
Like most trade unionists in the 1970s and 80s I worked with a fair few communists. Men like Dickie Lawlor,…
The dying fall of the Fells
At some point during your reading of this book the realisation might dawn, if you didn’t already know about his…
The art of getting busted
The Art of Smuggling comes garlanded with fraternal encomia from Howard ‘Mr Nice’ Marks, Phil Sparrowhawk (author of Grass) and…
David Pryce-Jones settles old scores
The geological title of this unhappy memoir is an apt metaphor for fissures in the relationships between individuals of David…
Oliver Sacks bids farewell in style
‘I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not…
Chrissie Hynde writes like an angel on angel dust
‘The day I found out that Suzi Quatro wasn’t a dyke was the worst day of my life!’ a teenage…
From Adrian Gill to A.A. Gill — with love and thanks
Often, Christmas is a time for moaning after the night before, when the seasonal drinking is remembered (if remembered at…
The smoking diary of Gregor Hens
The link between smoking and self-expression is long-established. The only thing worse than not being able to smoke, says Will…
Cycling is about much more than winning — and David Millar’s The Racer is quite a ride
In 2004, French police officers searching the home of the professional cyclist David Millar found some syringes and empty phials…
Where would America be without Gloria Steinem?, asks Carmen Callil
This is a book written by a most admirable woman, which is nevertheless — with some rare and excellent exceptions…
Warning: this book only contains strong language
Dan Marshall, the author of this memoir, loves to swear. ‘It’s very difficult for me to write a sentence without…
The perils of porcelain – and the pleasures of Edmund de Waal
A.S. Byatt on the dark, deadly secrets lurking beneath a calm, white surface
The trials of living with a High Court judge
This intensely written memoir by Adam Mars-Jones about his Welsh father, Sir William, opens with the death of Sheila, Adam’s…
Harry’s Homer — a humorous history
It was a certain unforgettable ex-girlfriend, Harry Mount confesses — named only as ‘S’ in his dedication — who came…
Rich, thin and selfish in Manhattan
The scene: a funeral parlour in New York. Doors clang as a family relative, the ‘black sheep’, saunters in halfway…
Trials of the century: sex, sodomy, espionage, theft and fraud
Jeremy Hutchinson was the doyen of the criminal bar in the 1960s and 1970s. No Old Bailey hack or parvenu…
Iain Sinclair and me — Michael Moorcock meets his semi-mythical version
In the late 1980s Peter Ackroyd invited me to meet Iain Sinclair, whose first novel, White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings, I…
It’s amazing how many different subjects Sir Thomas Browne’s latest biographer doesn’t care about
On the evening of 10 March 1804, Samuel Taylor Coleridge settled at a desk in an effort to articulate what…
The ‘art’ of stealing presented as English heritage
The publicity blurb about the two unpleasant criminals whom this dismal book romanticises says that they are ‘continuing their ancestors’…
Roger Federer helped me through my nervous breakdown, says William Skidelsky
Good writing about sport is rare — and good writing about tennis is that much rarer — so it’s conspicuous…
To Land’s End and beyond: footsore but bravely coasting along
It’s a real skill, writing about a journey where nothing ever happens. We shouldn’t be surprised that Simon Armitage is…
By, with, of and for Kim Kardashian — keeping up with Kulture
The almond eyes that rise towards their outer edges. The cheekbones that curve down to the corners of those upholstered…
A singer’s joys and woes: like her heroine Dusty Springfield, Tracey Thorn has trouble coming to terms with her beautiful voice
Look up Tracey Thorn’s live performances with Everything But The Girl or Massive Attack on You Tube and you’ll find…
