Colm Toíbin

How to be good

28 October 2017 9:00 am

Suffering, wrote Auden, takes place ‘while someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along’. His…

Act of faith: Sybil Thorndike as Saint Joan, c.1924, in George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Saint Joan’

Why does drama always end up sneering at religion?

5 March 2016 9:00 am

 Theo Hobson explores the enduring appeal that religion has for dramatists

Corbyn’s turn on Today was as graceful and twinkle-toed as Bowie himself

16 January 2016 9:00 am

Some might say that Jeremy Corbyn is cloth-eared, tone-deaf, socially inept but on Monday morning, as the death of the…

Saoirse Ronan as Eilis and Emory Cohen as Tony in ‘Brooklyn’

Traditional storytelling at its most exquisite: Brooklyn reviewed

7 November 2015 9:00 am

Brooklyn is a wee slip of a thing compared to the Bond film, Spectre, and cost $12 million, as opposed…

Domhnall Gleeson as Jim Farrell and Saoirse Ronan as Eilis in ‘Brooklyn’

Colm Toibin on priests, loss and the half-said thing

24 October 2015 9:00 am

Jenny McCartney talks to unstoppable literary force Colm Tóibín about loss, priests and half-said things

‘14.11.65’ by John Hoyland

Is John Hoyland the new Turner?

27 September 2014 9:00 am

What happens to an artist’s reputation when he dies? Traditionally, there was a period of cooling off when the reputation,…

Philip Hensher reviews the Man Booker prize longlist

24 August 2013 9:00 am

The Man Booker prize has strong years and weak years. There have been ones when the judges have succeeded in…