book reviews and features
Anne Applebaum: Red Famine review - hope around a heart of darkness
Sunday, 17 September 2017
Hands both sensitive and surgical are needed to guide a reader into the heart of the 20th century’s second biggest genocide and out again. Anne Applebaum is the right person for a... Read more... |
Adam Macqueen: The Lies of the Land review - light, but enlightening
Sunday, 17 September 2017
We are now firmly in the post-truth era as defined by Oxford Dictionaries: "adjective - relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping... Read more... |
Robert Harris: Munich review - reselling Hitler
Saturday, 16 September 2017
Robert Harris’s first book about Hitler told the story of the hoax diaries which seduced Rupert Murdoch and Hugh Trevor-Roper. After Selling Hitler (1986) came Fatherland (1992... Read more... |
John le Carré: A Legacy of Spies review - the master in twilight mood
Sunday, 10 September 2017
Over his long career – 23 novels, memoirs, his painfully believable narratives adapted into extraordinary films (10 for the big screen) and for television – John le Carré has created a world that... Read more... |
Extract: Peter Brook - Tip of the Tongue: Reflections on Language and Meaning
Sunday, 10 September 2017
A long time ago when I was very young, a voice hidden deep within me whispered, "Don’t take anything for granted. Go and see for yourself." This little nagging murmur has led me to so... Read more... |
Sigrid Rausing: Mayhem review - you want it darker?
Sunday, 03 September 2017
There is fictional Nordic noir. And then there is this, the real thing. Subject matter really couldn’t be much darker than that of Mayhem: A Memoir in which publisher,... Read more... |
Val McDermid: Insidious Intent review - dark and expert crime writing
Sunday, 27 August 2017
Val McDermid has written close on 30 award-winning thrillers and suspense novels, in four series, since... Read more... |
Omar Robert Hamilton: The City Always Wins review - Egypt's revolution, up close and personal
Sunday, 20 August 2017
A few days ago we learned that British taxpayers have unwittingly donated around £1m. in aid to the police and court systems of Egypt’s military dictatorship, via an opaque “Conflict, Stability... Read more... |
Fred Vargas: The Accordionist review - intriguing Gallic sleuthing yarn
Sunday, 13 August 2017
The two haunting series of crime ... Read more... |
James Hamilton: Gainsborough - A Portrait review - an artistic life told with verve and enthusiasm
Sunday, 06 August 2017
James Hamilton’s wholly absorbing biography is very different from the usual kind of... Read more... |
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Christian Pierre La Marca, Yaman Okur, St Martin-in-The-Fiel...
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That They May Face The Rising Sun review - lyrical adaptatio...
In director Pat Collins’s lyrical adaptation of John McGahern’s last novel, with cinematography by Richard Kendrick, the landscape is perhaps the...
Album: Pet Shop Boys - Nonetheless
This album came with an absolutely enormous promo campaign. As well as actual advertising there were “Audience With…” events, and specials on BBC...
Ridout, Włoszczowska, Crawford, Lai, Posner, Wigmore Hall re...
Advice to young musicians, as given at several “how to market your career” seminars: don’t begin a biography with “one of the finest xxxs of his/...
Stephen review - a breathtakingly good first feature by a mu...
Stephen is the first feature film by multi-media artist Melanie Manchot and it’s the best debut film I’ve seen since Steve McQueen’s ...
Album: Mdou Moctar - Funeral for Justice
Despite its title, Mdou Moctar’s new album is no slow-paced mournful dirge. In fact, it is louder, faster and more overtly political than any of...
Blue Lights Series 2, BBC One review - still our best cop sh...
The first season of Blue Nights was so close to ...
Sabine Devieilhe, Mathieu Pordoy, Wigmore Hall review - ench...
Sabine Devieilhe, as with many other great sopranos, elicits much fan worship, with no less than three encores at her recent Wigmore Hall recital...
Jonn Elledge: A History of the World in 47 Borders review -...
In A History of the World in 47 Borders, Jonn Elledge takes an ostensibly dry subject – how maps and boundaries have shaped our world –...