Michel Faber’s tin ear
The novelist’s arresting study of the power of music is marred by a clumsy structure and snobbish tone.
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The best children’s books for Christmas 2023
There’s fantasy, folklore and friendship in the best new books for young readers.
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On being the writer in the family
Writers exploit and rebel against their parents – but can never escape them.
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What video games taught me
A collection of essays on gaming confirms the rich complexity of an art form that remains widely misunderstood.
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Maruyama Ōkyo: artist of the frozen world
The 18th-century Japanese painter learned lessons from Western art and used them more daringly than any European.
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Cooking for others gives me purpose. That doesn’t mean I enjoy it
You know why chefs are skinny and have explosive tempers? Because their mothers try to help them in the kitchen…
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A strange and intimate Ghost Story
This podcast mixes true crime, family history and the paranormal – to intriguing effect.
Matthew Ball’s cerebral ballet
The Royal Ballet principal on embracing pain, bringing the unconscious to the stage, and the dance world after #MeToo.
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The bird that wasn’t there
Soon after the Bay thrush was discovered in 1774, it was lost. But we can no longer blame ignorance for…
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Judi Dench’s Q&A: “Shakespeare’s rhythms are the beating of my heart”
The actor on Jennie Lee, Elizabeth Fry and her annoyance at those who throw away food on the sell-by date.
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Christmas in Hamburg
At the city’s festive markets shopping is not the objective: it is to meet friends and sip Glühwein.
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Can podcasts and acupressure get me through the icy winter months?
Perhaps the level of well-being we all seek is incompatible with being human.
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At its midpoint, this season is shaping up to be one of football’s oddest
So far we’ve seen Dickensian midfielders, a blizzard of coaching jobs, and the return of peep-hole socks.
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A bluffer’s guide to rural politics
Initially a reluctant candidate for a Herefordshire Council seat, I discovered the camaraderie, conflict and thrill of local elections.
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Inside Elvis’s dollhouse
Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla Presley biopic shows how the singer groomed his teenage wife – but his obsession with young girls…
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Timothée Chalamet is a sweeter – but weaker – Wonka
The Warner Bros origin story for the chocolatier adds songs and removes nastiness from Roald Dahl’s tale – for the…
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To catch a catfish
How one detective took on an international network of romance fraudsters.
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Notes on trying
For readers and writers, novels require enormous effort. Why do we persist in seeking meaning in their pages?
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Dispatches from the land of Long Covid
My search for a cure took me into the strange waters of wellness.
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The new world disorder
A new binary of opposing powers has emerged, with the forces of chaos ranged against the West.
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