The Gatekeeper Kate Fall HQ £16.99 Rating: Discretion may be the better part of valour, but it is the worst part of a memoir. Kate Fall was David Cameron’s deputy chief of staff for 11 years, first in opposition and then in Government. Her desk was positioned outside Cameron’s door so she became known as … Read more
These headphones sound brilliant but they do make you look like a Teletubby! By Rob Waugh Event for The Mail on Sunday Published: 22:01 BST, 14 March 2020 | Updated: 22:01 BST, 14 March 2020 ‘You look like a Teletubby!’ These are words no man wants to hear. I suppose at least they didn’t say … Read more
Though the Aubrey Beardsley exhibition at Tate Britain is richly enjoyable, it’s best enjoyed in a comfortable chair with the catalogue By Philip Hensher for Event Published: 22:01 BST, 14 March 2020 | Updated: 22:01 BST, 14 March 2020 Aubrey Beardsley Tate Britain, London … Read more
Alanis Morissette Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London Touring September 28 to October 4 Rating: Mention 1996 to a music-lover and they will probably think of Oasis or the Spice Girls. But those bands, huge though they were, … Read more
MONDAY, MARCH 2 Back to the Good Morning Britain studios after three weeks in America, to find Susanna Reid in full-blown coronavirus alert mode. She has declared herself strictly non-contact. ‘No hugging, no kissing, no touching me whatsoever!’ she exclaimed when I entered her dressing room at 5.45am for our usual pre-show briefing and asked … Read more
From Louise Erdrich’s beguiling latest to English Monsters by James Scudamore and Louise Hare’s timely debut, this week’s best new fiction By Jeffrey Burke and Anthony Gardner and Simon Humphreys For Event Magazine Published: 22:00 BST, 14 March 2020 | Updated: 22:00 BST, 14 March 2020 The Night Watchman Louise Erdrich … Read more
POPULAR By Wendy Holden for the Daily Mail Published: 22:04 BST, 12 March 2020 | Updated: 23:37 BST, 13 March 2020 THIS LOVELY CITY by Louise Hare (HQ £12.99, 400 pp) THIS LOVELY CITY by Louise Hare (HQ £12.99, 400 pp) It’s fifties South London, among the Windrush generation. Twentysomething Lawrie is getting to grips … Read more
WORLD FICTION By Eithne Farry For The Daily Mail Published: 22:04 BST, 12 March 2020 | Updated: 23:31 BST, 13 March 2020 KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo translated by Jamie Chang (Scribner £12.99, 176 pp) KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo translated by Jamie Chang (Scribner £12.99, 176 pp) Written in just … Read more
MEMOIR THINGS I LEARNED FROM FALLING by Claire Nelson (Octopus £12.99, 272 pp) Dehydration is a God-awful business,’ says Claire Nelson. ‘Over time, your tongue becomes increasingly dry and scratchy, thickening like a wool mitten. My lips stuck to my gums like Velcro. ‘From there, you feel it in your head; a slowly increasing pressure … Read more
MISCELLANY UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE by Tom Standage (Economist £8.99, 272 pp) This is what Tom Standage, deputy editor of The Economist, calls ‘a compendium of explanations’. It’s uncommon knowledge in two senses of the word: in the normal sense of ‘rare or infrequently encountered’, and also as in the meaning ‘exceptional and extraordinary’. In short, it’s … Read more