July 21, 2017 Excessively Diverted: Austen Books into Movies By Diana Cheng To wrap up a week of Jane Austen celebration, here’s an annotated list of adaptations of her works on both the…
June 15, 2017 No Cunning Plan: My Story by Tony Robinson Review by Laura Marriott Like many people I first came to know Tony Robinson through his role as Baldrick on Blackadder, before following him…
May 2, 2017 Hamlet: Globe to Globe by Dominic Dromgoole Reviewed by Harriet Dominic Dromgoole was the Artistic Director of London’s Globe Theatre from 2005 to 2016. During this successful period he initiated many…
March 16, 2017 Hit Makers by Derek Thompson Review by Annabel I came to read this book immediately after devouring UK journalist and presenter Tim Harford’s recent Messy: How to Be Creative…
October 27, 2016 Loose Canon: the extraordinary songs of Clive James and Pete Atkin by Ian Shircore Review by Rob Spence It’s now over forty years since I discovered the songs of Pete Atkin and Clive James. In a wonderful series…
October 20, 2016 The Age of Bowie by Paul Morley Reviewed by Annabel When the world woke up on January 10th to hear that David Bowie had died just two days after Blackstar was…
January 12, 2016 Performing King Lear by Jonathan Croall Reviewed by Harriet The role of King Lear is seen today as the ultimate challenge for the classical actor, the one that provides the…
October 14, 2015 The 101 Greatest Plays from Antiquity to the Present, by Michael Billington Reviewed by Harriet As the longest-serving British theatre critic, a biographer, and a teacher and lecturer at several world-class universities, Michael Billington has some…
July 28, 2015 Alfred Hitchcock by Peter Ackroyd Reviewed by Victoria Rear Window is my all-time favourite film and I must have watched it a dozen times or more. I never seem to…
April 17, 2015 Naked at the Albert Hall by Tracey Thorn Reviewed by Annabel After the success of her memoir Bedsit Disco Queen (which I reviewed here) in which she told us how she joined…
April 16, 2015 Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris Reviewed by Victoria In this outstanding work of cinema history, Mark Harris follows the fortunes of five big name Hollywood directors who enlisted in…
April 16, 2015 Memoirs of a Professional Cad by George Sanders Reviewed by Lyn Baines In an Afterword to this new edition of George Sanders’ memoir, his niece, Ulla Watson, describes him as the opposite…
April 15, 2015 Great Shakespearean Actors: Burbage to Branagh by Stanley Wells Reviewed by Harriet Stanley Wells has been described as ‘our greatest authority on Shakespeare’s life and work’. He’s Honorary President of the Shakespeare Birthplace…
January 22, 2015 Armchair Nation by Joe Moran Reviewed by Annabel. I’m a big fan of television having been an enthusiastic watcher for all of my life, from The Woodentops to Blue…
January 20, 2015 The Old Vic by Terry Coleman Reviewed by Harriet I do enjoy a bit of theatre history from time to time, and I must admit to a bit of a…
July 10, 2014 A Curious Career by Lynn Barber Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell Some readers will have seen the rather excellent film An Education, based upon an episode in veteran journalist Lynn Barber’s life…
April 10, 2014 Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell I wish Tracey Thorn was my cousin, sister even. I can say that – for we share not only a…
