The enormous success of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy has won an army of new fans for historical fiction. Whether you’re new to the genre or a devotee of Mantel’s...
One of the greatest composers in the history of film, Ennio Morricone, has passed away peacefully in Rome at the age of 91. During his long and illustrious career he...
As a criminologist with a passion for crime fiction, I know it sounds a bit of a cliché, but crime thrillers may have started me on this career path to...
The words “national treasure” are bandied about quite a lot these days. But surely no one is more genuinely deserving of that title than Alan Bennett. The ever-green author, who...
November 1959. Film director Alfred Hitchcock is at his commercial and critical peak after the successes of Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959). So what does he do next?...
There’s no better way to escape the stresses and strains of daily life than to put your reading into “romance” gear. For a little summer relief, substitute the struggles of...
One of the most successful sit-coms of the eighties and nineties is back on our screens thanks to Channel 5 and it’s just what we need to help beat the...
How would you like to spend a few pleasant minutes floating ethereally through the corridors of the Victoria and Albert Museum as Richard E Grant reads to you from Alice...
Our basic human fear of solitude is a subject matter that has inspired story-tellers for centuries. The transformative effects of a period of isolation have set many a soul on...