Few writers have covered their tracks as successfully as Anita Brookner
The distinguished art historian and novelist shredded as many private papers as she could, leaving her biographer the daunting task of piecing together clues from published material
The joy of chucking little wooden blocks around
Neil Squires delights in the Finnish game of Mölkky, whereby players aim to knock over 12 numbered wooden skittles using a single throwing pin
The many shades of Pink Floyd
Founded 60 years ago, the multi-million-selling rock band has had five incarnations to date, with members dying, resigning or suing each other in a series of blistering law suits
Across the universe – John and Paul are in each other’s songs forever
The Lennon-McCartney collaboration was one of genius from the start – and even in later years their songs continued to speak to one another, says Ian Leslie
The greatest British pop singer who never made a hit single
The musician known as Lawrence has spent four decades chasing fame, and the quest itself has made him a superstar – albeit at street level
The horror of finding oneself ‘young-old’
‘I used to run upstairs all the time,’ sixtysomething Marcus Berkmann recalls wistfully, as, midway through life’s journey, he wakes to find himself in a dark wood
The Prefab Four
Monkeying around on TV vastly increased the group’s sales and popularity but prevented them from ever being taken seriously, says Tom Kemper
A shaggy drug story
The Scottish writer David Keenan has published five novels in five years: This is Memorial Device (2017), For the Good…
Rock till you drop
What do the following individuals have in common: a political activist from Suffolk; a chartered psychologist from Oxfordshire, who enjoys…
Stories within stories within stories
Near to the heart of this wild and labyrinthine novel — on page 516 of 808 — a character in…
A true bohemian
It is well established that artists are not always the nicest people. On the surface, the life of the model,…
Hard times for the arts
As readers of a certain age will realise, Looking for a New England derives its title from ‘A New England’,…
Satisfaction all round
In his latest book, the veteran pop commentator David Hepworth is concerned with satisfaction, its acquisition and maintenance. On record,…
Thrills and spills
Before reading this book, the only thing I knew about Action Park was that it had lent its name to…
The bittersweet lure of the past
At first glance, nostalgia does not seem like a subject much suited to exploration via the medium of the pop…
Nick Lowe is that rare phenomenon — the veteran rock star who improves with age
It is to Nick Lowe’s everlasting credit that in May 1977, a few months after David Bowie released the album…
Solving the mystery of my mother’s kidnap
At first glance, Laura Cumming’s memoir On Chapel Sands begins with what appears to be a happy ending. On an…
Shakespeare on the beach: Oh I Do Like to Be…, by Marie Phillips, reviewed
The phrase ‘Shakespeare comedy’ is an oxymoron with a long pedigree, one which perhaps stretches back to the late 16th…
On the run from Corunna: Now We Shall be Entirely Free, by Andrew Miller, reviewed
There is only one Andrew Miller. In the 20 years since his debut novel Ingenious Pain won both the James…
Less, by Andrew Sean Greer, reviewed
For someone who is only 47 and has won a Pulitzer Prize, Andrew Sean Greer certainly knows how to get…
How can we know what dead people want?
In 1999, Patrick Hemingway published True at First Light, a new novel by his father Ernest. In his role as…
The short, reckless life of Andrea Dunbar
In her debut novel, Adelle Stripe recounts the brief, defiant life of the playwright Andrea Dunbar. Dunbar was raised on…
Having your cake
For those in the know, Jimmy Webb is one of the great pop songwriters of the 1960s and 70s, up…
An innocent abroad
For those who read the weekly music press during the 1980s, David Quantick’s was a name you could rely on.…
Alive and kicking
Four years after his death, it is still faintly surprising to recall that Christopher Hitchens is no longer resident on…
