It was Julian Barnes who dubbed the Booker Prize "posh bingo". And happily his numbers may be up again as he has been longlisted for this year's prize for The Sense of An Ending... more
This week's decision to abolish the UK Film Council makes me long for the days when David Cameron cared so much about being seen to value culture that he clutched a shiny new copy of On Chesil Beach on the Tube... more
Appreciation: Beryl Bainbridge's acclaimed career owed almost as much to her social skills as to her writing skills and no literary party was complete without her... more
Prize-winning novelist Ian McEwan has enjoyed both literary and commercial success. So why is there suddenly an internet outpouring of bile against him?... 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
Just so that we're straight on this from the beginning, you should know that I like Barack Obama. Got that book he wrote about his dad and dreams and everything... more
I blame the credit crunch. Only terminal weariness with hearing about our ever-worse economic prospects can explain why Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross dominated the news all week.... more
Ian McEwan's mildly salacious scenario, his debut as an opera librettist in For You, serves as a spicy vehicle for Michael Berkeley's latest opera.... more
The Man Booker judges have determined that Aravind Adiga's debut novel about the seamier side of Indian life is the best fiction of the year. How do they do that?... more
Celebrity sells at an astonishing rate, yet at its heart the UK still loves a book for itself and London is a great champion of literature. These are the people who keep us reading.
... more
It could be an Ian McEwan novel: an only child given away at birth tracks down his secret family and discovers he has a famous brother. The twist? It’s true ...and the brother IS Ian McEwan. Here,they tell their extraordinary story ... more
The Brits threaten to clean up at the Oscars - but can our film industry sustain the good form? Charlotte O'Sullivan looks ahead to the movies that could take next year's prizes.... more
Afternoon:
8°c
