J.K. Rowling
A mess: Fantastic Beasts reviewed
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the sequel to the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find…
A brief history of unicorns
After the England football team beat Tunisia at this summer’s World Cup, they celebrated with a swimming-pool race on inflatable…
Unhappy days
Scriptwriters love to feast on the lives of children’s authors. The themes tend not to vary: they may have brought…
Second thoughts
I had planned to review David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s new Channel 4 sitcom Back without constantly referring to their…
Do myths and folklore damage children’s brains?
Children’s fantasy literature has never been just one thing. Animal fables, folk and fairy tales were not originally intended for…
James Runcie’s diary: A Willie’s shock at the SNP
I am writing a play about Dr Johnson and his Dictionary. It will be performed in Scotland later this year.…
UKIP: The First 100 Days, Channel 4, review: a sad, predictable, desperate hatchet job
Just three months into Ukip’s shock victory as the party of government and already Nigel Farage’s mob are starting to…
J.K. Rowling is just too nice – and too lucky – to satirise publishing
J.K. Rowling’s second novel under the Robert Galbraith moniker is a whodunit set in the publishing industry. This isn’t a…
Dan Snow's diary: Making World Cup history
Could there be a more timely advert for the Better Together campaign than on the field of sport? What the…
It’s the summer of the topless man – and there’s nothing we can do to stop it
Topless men. What does that mean, then? I was opposite one on the tube the other day, heading north from…