Featured review
Patient 1 by Charlotte Raven review
If you can remember the 90s, you weren’t really there,” writes Charlotte Raven in her memoir, Patient 1: Forgetting and Finding Myself. “I remember so little of it that I must have been more there than practically anyone, Liam Gallagher excepted.” For those…
The Crossing by Andrew Miller - mesmeric but infuriating
The Crossing by Andrew Miller - mesmeric but infuriating
Andrew Miller’s latest novel is easy on the ear but his heroine is inscrutable to an infuriating degree…
Dictator by Robert Harris - a remarkable literary achievement
Dictator by Robert Harris - a remarkable literary achievement
The third part of Harris’s Cicero trilogy is a fine portrait of the great Roman’s last years…
Miles Jupp: 'I'd love to play a Bond villain'
Miles Jupp: 'I'd love to play a Bond villain'
Comedian Miles Jupp, new host of Radio 4’s News Quiz, talks about the onus of taking over from…
The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson - The Winter's Tale retold
The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson - The Winter's Tale retold
The novelist’s recasting of Shakespeare is respectful of the original while injecting it with contemporary grit and characteristic…
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood - madcap life-swapping dystopia
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood - madcap life-swapping dystopia
The Canadian author’s latest novel recasts modern America in dark comic terms…
Stewart Lee: A Room With a Stew - a tongue-in-cheek comic on top of his game
Stewart Lee: A Room With a Stew - a tongue-in-cheek comic on top of his game
Lee’s ability to ‘test a set piece to destruction’ is at the fore of an evolving show delivered…
Edinburgh festival 2015 comedy - heckling iPods, improv ballads and feminist rap
Edinburgh festival 2015 comedy - heckling iPods, improv ballads and feminist rap
Ambitious Daniel Kitson, energetic Pippa Evans and chatty Jenny Bede play it their own way, while Bridget Christie…
Felicity Ward: 'As soon as I mention the word anxiety, the audience go quiet'
Felicity Ward: 'As soon as I mention the word anxiety, the audience go quiet'
The Australian comic explains that her show about irritable bowel syndrome and anxiety has no ‘serious moment’…
Edinburgh festival 2015 comedy - Lolly Adefope, Aisling Bea and Joseph Morpurgo among the highlights
Edinburgh festival 2015 comedy - Lolly Adefope, Aisling Bea and Joseph Morpurgo among the highlights
Character comedy, childhood memories and a fantasy Desert Island Discs hit the mark in week one on the…
Nina Conti: 'I'm hoping people will sit in the front row if they're feeling brave'
Nina Conti: 'I'm hoping people will sit in the front row if they're feeling brave'
The comedian and ventriloquist explains why she decided to make the audience her puppets in her new show…
Mislaid & The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink - audacious and shockingly funny
Mislaid & The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink - audacious and shockingly funny
Jonathan Franzen’s protege proves herself worthy of his patronage with this highly original pair of novels…
Is the pram in the hall still the enemy of good art?
Is the pram in the hall still the enemy of good art?
A forthcoming BBC documentary fronted by Lily Cole will take Cyril Connolly’s famous quote as its starting point…
So-called 'Viagra for women' leaves me cold
So-called 'Viagra for women' leaves me cold
Flibanserin is supposed to be the answer to a woman’s low libido. It sounds like a real headache…
The Infidel Stain - MJ Carter's smartly plotted murder mystery
The Infidel Stain - MJ Carter's smartly plotted murder mystery
Political unrest and poverty plague 19th-century London in the novelist’s skilful follow-up to last year’s lauded The Strangler…