Nick Hornby

Nina Stibbe’s eye for the absurd is as sharp as ever

28 October 2023 9:00 am

Back in London after an absence of 20 years, she’s no longer a literary outsider – but she’s still an acute observer, relishing the foibles of everyone she meets

Where does Donald Trump’s new favourite word come from?

20 January 2018 9:00 am

In Polite Conversation, Jonathan Swift presents dialogues made up of clichés, banalities and catchphrases. When Miss Notable makes a remark…

David Attenborough used to steal the animals he found in the jungle and take them home

21 May 2016 9:00 am

Let me start this week with an admittedly hard quiz question: in 1954, how did the sudden illness of Jack…

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

The golden age of pop has been replaced by the golden age of pop obituaries

11 April 2015 9:00 am

The golden age of pop music may be long gone, but the golden age of pop musicians’ obituaries is definitely…

Wild made me want to puke

17 January 2015 9:00 am

Wild is yet another film based on a true story, as currently seems to be in vogue for some reason.…

Things to do: read this book

1 November 2014 9:00 am

It would be perverse not to succumb to the temptation to write this review as a list. So, the first…