book reviews and features
Boris Akunin: Black City review - a novel to sharpen the wits
Sunday, 16 December 2018
It is 1914 – a fateful year for assassinations, war and revolution. The fictional Erast Petrovich Fandorin,... Read more... |
Global fiction: the pick of 2018
Sunday, 09 December 2018
If you believe the bulk of the “books of the year” features that drift like stray tinsel across the media at this time of year, Britain’s literary taste-makers only enjoy the flavours of the... Read more... |
Matthew Dennison: Eternal Boy review – the banker who stayed forever young
Sunday, 25 November 2018
In Ian McEwan’s 1987 novel The Child in Time, a high-powered publisher and politician named Charles Darke quits his posts, regresses to a child-like state, and frolics in the woods like a... Read more... |
Daša Drndić: Belladonna review - a tragicomic journey into Europe's darkness
Sunday, 18 November 2018
Daša Drndić, the Croatian author who died in June aged 71, has posthumously won the second Warwick Prize for Women in Translation for her coruscating novel Belladonna. The award, set up... Read more... |
Dramatic Exchanges review - a brilliant slice of theatre history
Sunday, 11 November 2018
Dramatic Exchanges is a dazzling array of correspondence, stretching over more than a century, between... Read more... |
Michael Connelly: Dark Sacred Night review - a pairing of loner detectives
Sunday, 04 November 2018
The master of the Southern California... Read more... |
Michael Caine: Blowing the Bloody Doors Off review - an actor's handbook, annotated by experience
Sunday, 28 October 2018
What a charmer! An irresistible combination of diffidence and confidence, Michael Caine is so much more than Alfie... Read more... |
Julian Baggini: How the World Thinks review - a whirlwind tour of ideas
Sunday, 21 October 2018
The intrepid philosopher Julian Baggini has travelled the world, going to academic conferences, interviewing scores of practicing philosophers from academics to gurus, trying to figure out and pin... Read more... |
Barbara Kingsolver: Unsheltered review - too many issues
Sunday, 14 October 2018
“When men fear the loss of what they know, they will follow any tyrant who promises to restore the old order.” Mary Treat, the real-life 19th-century botanist who is one of the characters in... Read more... |
Simon Sebag Montefiore: Written in History review - epistolary high points
Sunday, 07 October 2018
Humdinger! This is a totally brilliant idea for an amazing anthology, although the subtitle “Letters that Changed... Read more... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
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Album: The Weather Station - Humanhood
Four of Humanhood’s 13 tracks are short, impressionistic mood pieces. Between 48 seconds and just-over a minute-and-a-half long, they...
Oliver!, Gielgud Theatre review - Lionel Bart's 1960 ma...
Into a world of grooming gangs, human trafficking and senior prelates resigning over child abuse cases comes Oliver!, Lionel...
What's the Matter with Tony Slattery?, BBC Two review -...
In the late Eighties and Nineties, Tony Slattery became one of the most ubiquitous faces on television, appearing regularly on Whose Line Is...
Album: Ethel Cain - Perverts
Ethel Cain’s Perverts is a dark and experimental follow-up to her debut album, Preacher’s Daughter. It takes listeners on a...
Leif Ove Andsnes, Wigmore Hall review - colour and courage,...
Forthright and upright, powerful and lucid, the frank and bold pianism of Leif Ove Andsnes took his Wigmore Hall audience from Norway to Poland (...
American Primeval, Netflix review - nightmare on the Wild Fr...
It seems The Osmonds may not have been the worst outrage perpetrated on an unsuspecting public by the Mormons. American Primeval is set...
Chamayou, BBC Philharmonic, Wigglesworth, Bridgewater Hall,...
Top Brownie points for the BBC Philharmonic for being one of the first (maybe the first?) to celebrate the birth centenary of Pierre Boulez this...
The Maids, Jermyn Street Theatre review - new broom sweeps c...
There are two main reasons to revive classics. The first is that they are really good; the second is that they have something to...
Gala Preview Show, De Montfort Hall review - Leicester Comed...
Europe's biggest comedy festival, which showcases established stars,...