mon 06/10/2025

book reviews and features

Zsuzsanna Gahse: Mountainish review - seeking refuge

Leila Greening

Mountainish by Zsuzsanna Gahse is a collection of 515 notes, each contributing to an expansive kaleidoscope of mountain encounters. Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire in...

Read more...

Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham review - New York stories

John Carvill

Patrick McGilligan’s biography of Woody Allen weighs in at an eye-popping 800 pages, yet he waits only for...

Read more...

Howard Amos: Russia Starts Here review - East meets West, via the Pskov region

India Lewis

Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruin of Empire, the journalist Howard Amos’ first book, is a prescient and fascinating examination of the borderlands of a bellicose nation. Focusing...

Read more...

Henry Gee: The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire - Why Our Species is on the Edge of Extinction review - survival instincts

Jon Turney

Henry Gee’s previous book, A Brief History of Life on Earth, made an interestingly downbeat read for a title that won the UK’s science book prize. He emphasised that a...

Read more...

Jonathan Buckley: One Boat review - a shore thing

Leila Greening

One Boat, Jonathan Buckley’s 13th novel, captures a series of encounters at the water’s edge: characters converge...

Read more...

Help to give theartsdesk a future!

theartsdesk

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and...

Read more...

Jessica Duchen: Myra Hess - National Treasure review - well-told life of a pioneering musician

Bernard Hughes

Myra Hess was one of the most important figures in British cultural life in the mid-20th century: the pre-eminent...

Read more...

Shon Faye: Love in Exile review - the greatest feeling

India Lewis

As Valentine’s Day crests around us, and lonely hearts come out of their winter hibernation, what better time to publish writer and journalist Shon Faye’s second book Love in Exile? In...

Read more...

Philip Marsden: Under a Metal Sky review - rock and awe

Jon Turney

Working on materials was basic to human culture from the start: chipping at flint to make a hand-axe; fashioning bone or wood; drying hides. In time, people discovered that some materials,...

Read more...

Jacqueline Feldman: Precarious Lease review - living on the edge

India Lewis

Taking on some of the contingent, nebulous quality of its subject, Jacqueline Feldman’s Precarious Lease examines the beginning...

Read more...

Pages

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £49,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

 

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Susanna, Opera North review - hybrid staging of a Handel ora...

Turning Handel oratorio into opera can be a rewarding enterprise. Charles Edwards’ presentation of Joshua, over 15 years ago, for...

Scott, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Whelan, RIAM, Dublin review...

One miracle of musical performance is that a work you’ve loved for years can be revealed as never before in an outstanding interpretation. That...

Pop Will Eat Itself's 'Delete Everything' is...

Pop Will Eat Itself deserve to be more celebrated. The ...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Earlies - These Were The Earlies

The reappearance of These Were The Earlies for its 21st-anniversary is a surprise. Although The Earlies' debut LP received a maximum-...

France, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - the sound of other worlds

Even in the 21st century, it may not take that long for an outlandish literary experiment to jump genres and become an established musical classic...

Like Water for Chocolate, Royal Ballet review - splendid dan...

Christopher Wheeldon has mined a new seam of narrative pieces for the...

Rohtko, Barbican review - postmodern meditation on fake and...

It’s truly thrilling to see the Barbican embracing big concept long-form theatre again, seeking out productions that are as conceptually...

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters