The author of the best-selling book The Gruffalo today pledged to 'act out her stories' as she was named the new Waterstone's Children's Laureate... more
Hero of the Sixties counter-culture Michael Horovitz tells Tim Willis why it would take uncommon sense for him to be appointed Oxford professor of Poetry on Friday.... more
Chapel Club are a bunch of boys from Essex, Swindon, London and Leeds who sound like the unlikely lovechild of Joy Division and My Bloody Valentine.... more
There are few experiences so infuriating for Londoners as sitting in traffic jams caused by whole stretches of highway being cordoned off for roadworks... more
In Waterstone’s I found 10 love poems in a pristine white envelope. Though mostly contemporary, they seem almost sweetly Victorian in the context of the modern "F**k off, he's mine" Valentine’s card... more
Charlotte Brontë's desk, where she wrote Jane Eyre at the family parsonage in Haworth, is up for auction next week. Sotheby's has put an estimated £10,000 price tag on its spindly legs and delicate frame... more
Unassuming isn't the first word that comes to mind when thinking of former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, but that's how he struck me the first time I set eyes on him... more
He was the poet laureate whose harsh, dark evocations of nature made him a staple of the school curriculum even as his doomed marriage to fellow writer Sylvia Plath made him a hate figure for extreme feminists... more
Nice people take drugs." These are the four words considered so dangerous, so irresponsible, that advertising authorities have banned them from appearing on the side of London buses. Pathetic, no?... more
As the award-winning adaptation of his Great War novel transfers to the West End, Michael Morpurgo pays tribute to the eight million noble beasts
that perished in the trenches.... more
With the discovery that Nicholas Hughes hanged himself at the age of 47, a cruel and bitter legacy of depression and suicide continues to haunt one of Britain’s most famous literary families... more
A poet galvanised into finishing his first collection for 20 years by the onset of terminal motor neurone disease has won one of the most prestigious prizes in poetry... more
In some ways, Andrew Motion has been the perfect Poet Laureate. As a poet, Motion has never shown the tiniest inkling of talent at any point in his career - and this lucky chance has freed him to perform the public duties of the laureateship without anybody worrying that he is betraying his genius... more
Sound check: German industrial metal band Rammstein literally play with fire in their live performances - and now they are about to unleash their singeing spectacle on London. Watch out for your eyebrows
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