Keep it clean
I am still listening to the new Coldplay album, and liking it more and more, and not just because everyone…
I, spy
There can’t have been this many books about the first world war since — just after the first world war.…
Hopkins to the rescue
It’s a long time, a very, very long time, since I bought a Coldplay album. Has any band of the…
Hopkins to the rescue
It’s a long time, a very, very long time, since I bought a Coldplay album. Has any band of the…
Not guilty
The film critic Anne Billson wrote a typically pugnacious piece recently about the phrase ‘guilty pleasures’, which has spread like…
Not guilty
The film critic Anne Billson wrote a typically pugnacious piece recently about the phrase ‘guilty pleasures’, which has spread like…
Old man’s game
It is coming to something when relatively young pop stars die not of drugs or misadventure but, essentially, of old…
Old man’s game
It is coming to something when relatively young pop stars die not of drugs or misadventure but, essentially, of old…
The torture of earworms
Earworm: what a wonderful word. It describes, as nothing else quite can, the effect a really invasive melody can have…
The torture of earworms
Earworm: what a wonderful word. It describes, as nothing else quite can, the effect a really invasive melody can have…
The real thing
Every musical career has its own narrative, and most of them include at least one comeback. To come back, you…
The real thing
Every musical career has its own narrative, and most of them include at least one comeback. To come back, you…
Seasonal torture
Three months until spring. Four months until the start of the cricket season. And only nine months until the radio…
Seasonal torture
Three months until spring. Four months until the start of the cricket season. And only nine months until the radio…
On your marks…
One day there simply won’t be any strange byways of the English language left to write quirky little books about.…
On your marks…
One day there simply won’t be any strange byways of the English language left to write quirky little books about.…
Grace under pressure
Ask any England cricket fan in his fifties to name his favourite batsman and chances are he will say David…
Grace under pressure
Ask any England cricket fan in his fifties to name his favourite batsman and chances are he will say David…
Helpful hints for Holloway
For some reason you don’t expect people to be fans of the Mitford sisters, as others are fans of Doctor…
Helpful hints for Holloway
For some reason you don’t expect people to be fans of the Mitford sisters, as others are fans of Doctor…
Notes from a big country
The esteemed literary critic, serial academic and one-time Marxist firebrand Terry Eagleton is, at 70, still producing books at an…
Notes from a big country
The esteemed literary critic, serial academic and one-time Marxist firebrand Terry Eagleton is, at 70, still producing books at an…
All our Yesterdays
Too many Beatles books? In my house there’s always room for one more, and this week’s addition is All Together…
All our Yesterdays
Too many Beatles books? In my house there’s always room for one more, and this week’s addition is All Together…
Blue-sky dreaming
We don’t have an extreme climate, says Richard Mabey in Turned Out Nice Again (Profile, £8.99). We don’t have tsunamis,…
