Recent crime fiction
I recommend Brother Kemal, Cross and Burn, Dead Woman Walking, Others of My Kind
Reading a face
Goffredo Fofi's Portrait of the Writer argues that a photo reveals much about an author. I'm not sure
Manners for beginners
But her book Peas and Queues gives good advice to youngsters about phone and plane etiquette
The baby and the bathwater
Bevis Hillier's The Virgin's Baby explores the infamous Russell trial — and a society that believed sperm could be passed through bathwater
A selection of humorous books
What should be by your toilet next year? Contenders from Mitchell Symons, Stephen Poole, Graeme Garden and more
A touch of Frost
Roger Bristow's biography of Terry Frost makes us examine the artist's exuberant work with fresh eyes
The Welsh Chekhov
Meic Stephens's wonderful biography on Rhys Davies may change the way the English regard Welsh writers
Squires, spires and serenity
What it does have is some of the country's best houses, as Bailey and Pevsner point out in The Buildings of England
The thrill of the chase
As a detective novel, Charles Palisser's Rustication is an exercise in pure form
Market values
I feel more strongly about this than ever, after reading Blanche Girouard's Portobello Voices
Cantons and Cantonese
In 1863, the pioneering travel agent Thomas Cook took a group of British tourists on the first package holiday to…
Law in action
A new production of Twelve Angry Men opens in the West End. What's your favourite trial drama?
Third time lucky
The latest revival of Berg's opera at the ROH is buoyed by a strong musical performance
Visions of the sublime
The V&A's once-in-a-lifetime exhibition is a sublime survey of Chinese treasures
Smouldering addiction
There are similarities between ancient Chinese art and Rothko — I got hooked on both at the same time
Lost cause
David Storey's 'Home' is full of mothballed bile-mongers mourning for something we never knew
Money and movies
Seduced and Abandoned is both a satire on film-making and a love letter to film-making and a joy. A documentary…
Light and shade
Hofesh Shechter's show had a dangling figure in the first night, none in the second. Which is better?
It’s everywhere
Plus: David Cameron's brother in courtroom TV; special effects just hide a lack of confidence
Trivial moaning
'I’m not posting this on the internet. Why should I let you lazy, spoiled TV Babies read it for nothing?'
All is forgiven
Are we part of the problem in Camus's The Outsider? A dramatisation of the book brings the message home
Double trouble
A documentary on YouTube pays homage to this terrifying sport that has the passenger's head inches from the ground
High life
The men of Wall Street might call him a loser, but they’re fat and ugly and don't know the true value of things
Low life
Now I've nothing to write about in my Christmas cards to relatives in drought-ridden, bushfired Australia
