
Wildfell
Inventing the ‘real’ in Life 2.0
Image: Lorenzo Herrera via Unsplash [If you haven’t yet watched this fascinating and bizarre documentary, Life 2.0 (2010), click here.]...
Henry Blofeld’s My A-Z of Cricket and the beauty of the great summer game
Illustration: Alex Abadjieva For centuries now, cricket has been an institution of the English summertime. Here to create an insightful...
‘A long and illustrious career’ David Attenborough: A life on our planet
Image: World Bank Photo Collection via Creative Commons [If you haven’t already watched this film, click here] There’s a genre of...
As if walking through a gallery: Salman Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh
Image: MORAN via Unsplash Salman Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh is extraordinary, not just in its scope and ambition, but in its ability...
Who’s Dick Johnson? Why am I crying? A review of documentary Dick Johnson is Dead
Image: Luca Micheli via Unsplash [This review of the 2020 documentary film Dick Johnson is Dead contains spoilers from the get-go. Watch...
Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half: mystery, identity and the ties that bind us
Illustration: Manvir Dobb From the opening page of Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half, the focus is on the perception of other people....
Lines in the sand and the many talents of A.A. Gill
Image: Jonathan Borba via Unsplash A.A. Gill forged a career through his ability to skewer individuals, tear their flaws wide open and...
Not so exciting times
Columnist Harry Vavasour on Naoise Dolan’s new novel Exciting Times. Image: Ruslan Bardash via Unsplash Twenty-two years old, fresh-faced...
Current, candid and cutting: Candice Carty-Williams' Queenie
Illustration by Sophie Kenyon Current, candid, and cutting. Candice Carty-Williams’ debut novel Queenie strides confidently between...
A tale which spans generations: returning to Dickens during uncertain times
Image: Mindspace Studio via Unsplash Charles Dickens was heavily influenced by a world of transition around him, especially as he lived...
J.G. Ballard’s High Rise and the intrigue of a frustrating dystopia
Image: Kirill Sharkovski via Unsplash Despite being forty-five years old this year, J.G. Ballard’s dystopian novel, High-Rise, is just as...
James Robertson's sensitive requiem - The Professor of Truth
Illustration: Sophie Kenyon James Robertson’s The Professor of Truth is a heart-wrenching novel mixing an intensely sensitive exploration...
When social media meets autofiction: Olivia Laing's Crudo
The epigraph to Olivia Laing’s 2018 novella, Crudo reads: “The cheap 12-inch sq. marble tiles behind speaker at UN always bothered me. I...
Holden Caulfield: the rebel without a cause of literature
Image: Manvir Dobb Holden Caulfield, a self-described “absent-minded”, “yellow guy” and a “terrific liar”, has been expelled from another...
Transitional and evocative: Amy Liptrott's The Outrun
Image: Razvan Narcis Ticu via Unsplash Amy Liptrot’s evocative memoir, The Outrun, tells the story of the author’s powerful rediscovery...
Betwixt living and dying: liminality in Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Fall of the House of Usher'
Image: Manvir Dobb The Fall of the House of Usher stands proud as one of Poe’s most famous, detailed and macabre pieces of fiction. First...
Reading DH Lawrence's Sons and Lovers
Image: Miranda Vandergriff via Unsplash Harry Vavasour on why, while the solitude of lockdown offers a unique chance to work through the...
Blending fiction and reality: a review of George R Stewart's Earth Abides
Image: Alex Abadjieva On the East coast of the Mediterranean Sea, c.450-200BCE, an elderly Hebrew sage ponders over the meaning of life....



















