Silk and the city

It’s whispering down the catwalk at Somerset House for London Fashion Week. It’s caressed by every tourist nipping into Liberty’s for an iconic paisley scarf. …

Naturally 7 @ Barbican Centre

Surprisingly, my husband manages to fit in a job other than me. He works for AEG, proud owner of the O2 and other impressively echoey …

‘Appy birfday, Mister Dikkins!

What to write? He said it all, literally. As we celebrate Dickens’s 200th birthday, this is definitely the year to go back and remember why …

Sport stories

If you were searching for a pastime that was the opposite of reading, you might well hit on sport. Burying your nose in a book …

In Residence: Beowulf

This season, the British Library is all about the manuscripts. The gorgeous artworks in ‘Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination’ – its big winter exhibition …

Future Folk

It was an unlikely pairing. You wouldn’t expect the sort of edgy, urban international hipsters that attend SXSW – the music, film, and technology festival …

Literary Resolutions

“Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions”, wrote Mark Twain in Nevada’s Territorial Enterprise on January 1, 1863. “Next week you can …

Scary Christmas shows

It was the blow job joke that did it.

Admittedly, the RSC’s new winter show, The Heart of Robin Hood, had signalled from the …

In Residence: Madonna del Prato

Perhaps the recession makes us eager to feel we’re getting more for our money. Perhaps James Cameron, Peter Jackson and the other masters of the …

Hamlet @ Young Vic

Ian Rickson‘s new Hamlet at the Young Vic contained a lot of firsts for me. It was the first time I’ve been …

Speakeasy season

The envelope was black, the address handwritten in silver calligraphy. Inside nestled a small, shining graphite key on a thin black cord. This was, the …

Demystifying writing

How does a novel happen?

In theory, it is a pretty simple process. First find something to say. Then – to paraphrase Coleridge – put …

‘WE FIRST’: CAN WE REMAKE CAPITALISM?

I know, it all sounds a bit heavy. But what with all the Occupy stuff, this is a very interesting proposition.

We First …

Wearable art

Investment pieces: we all know the theory. On a personal level, the interminable recession is forcing us to reassess our throwaway attitude to fashion. As …

The Reluctant Re-Reader

I have always found the desire to re-read novels bewildering. I do it, obviously. I can’t deny that it’s a pleasurable and fruitful exercise. But …