Books
Robert Harris on Boris Johnson, cancel culture and rehabilitating Chamberlain
Nigel Jones talks to the writer Robert Harris about Blair, Johnson and Polanski, cancel culture and his quest to rehabilitate Neville Chamberlain
Meet climber, photographer and filmmaker extraordinaire Jimmy Chin
Jimmy Chin is part Bear Grylls, part David Attenborough: he both climbs snow, ice and rock and films other mountaineers doing it too, writes Theo Zenou
In 1980s Bennington it was a badge of dishonour not to have slept with your professor
It is incredibly hard to convey the fleeting invincibility and passionate self-significance that we feel on the cusp of adulthood.…
Fight club: when book groups turn nasty
When book groups turn nasty
Granada’s Brideshead Revisited remains the sine qua non of mini-series
Sumptuous, glorious, luminous, lavish: Granada’s 40-year-old adaptation of Brideshead Revisited remains the sine qua non of mini-series, says Mark McGinness
Dave Eggers cancels Amazon
Selling books through Amazon is now part and parcel of a working author’s life. It would be a brave writer…
Kate Clanchy and the new censorship in publishing
‘There’s more than one way to burn a book’, wrote Ray Bradbury, in a coda to the 1979 edition of…
Why I gave up writing fiction
When, three years ago, I announced my retirement from writing fiction, the only thing that surprised me was the surprise…
The best theatre podcasts
All the world’s on stage again so where to go to for insight into what to see and why? Podcasts,…
The rise of the 'sensitivity reader'
Zoe Dubno on the rise of the ‘sensitivity reader’, a seductively cheap way for publishers to cancel-proof their books
Thoughtful and impeccable: Ken Burns's Hemingway reviewed
Ken Burns made his name in 1990 with The Civil War, the justly celebrated 11-and-a-half-hour documentary series that gave America’s…
Nina Hamnett's art was every bit as riveting as her life
Nina Hamnett’s art has long been overshadowed by her wild, hedonistic life, but that is changing, says Hermione Eyre — and about time
What Meghan Markle can learn from Enid Blyton
The year is 2070 and English Heritage are unveiling their latest Blue Plaque: ‘The Duchess of Sussex, children’s author, lived…
Remembering David Storey, giant of postwar English culture
Jasper Rees remembers David Storey, giant of postwar English culture and wry teller of tales, whose newly published memoir is perhaps his most remarkable work
How TikTok can turn a book into a bestseller
How TikTok can make a book a bestseller
What does your wedding reading say about you?
The pitfalls of choosing a wedding reading
The problem with decolonising Shakespeare
Scarcely a day passes without a major British institution announcing it is ‘decolonising’ itself. Most recently it was the turn…
How I learned to love audio books
According to a charity called Fight For Sight, 38 per cent of people who’ve been using screens more during lockdown…
The Sistine Chapel as you've never seen it before
Rosie Millard gets her gloved hands on one of the world’s most lavish – and expensive – art books
From ancient Greece to TikTok: a short history of the sea shanty
From ancient Greece to TikTok: Alexandra Coghlan on the pulling power of shanties
Most artistic careers end in failure. Why does no one talk about this?
Rosie Millard dispels the myth that persistence is always rewarded
The grumpy genius of Raymond Briggs
No one captures better than Raymond Briggs the ambivalence that many of us feel towards the festive season, says Daisy Dunn
Every page of this astonishingly beautiful ode to the citrus is a treat
Laura Freeman is transported by J.C. Volkamer’s astonishingly beautiful ode to the citrus
Absorbing and beautifully designed: Jane Eyre reviewed
Blackeyed Theatre is another victim of the virus. Its production of Jane Eyrewas midway through a UK tour, and due…
The genius of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue
I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue has just been voted the greatest radio comedy of all time by Radio Times,…
