book reviews and features

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support

Tom Birchenough Friday, 14 November 2025

...

Natalia Ginzburg: The City and the House review - a dying art

Hugh Barnes Saturday, 02 August 2025

Many readers and writers think of epistolary novels as old-fashioned, just as letter writing itself can seem a bit quaint nowadays. The genre became popular during the 18^th and 19^...

Tom Raworth: Cancer review - truthfulness

Jack Barron Friday, 04 July 2025

I recently heard a BBC Radio 4 presenter use the troubling phrase: "Not everyone agreed on the reality of that." Once the domain of Andre Breton’s Manifeste du surréalisme, such...

Ian Leslie: John and Paul - A Love Story in Songs review - help!

John Carvill Wednesday, 25 June 2025

Do we need any more Beatles books? The answer is: that’s the wrong question. What we need is more Beatles books that are worth reading. As the musician and music historian Bob Stanley pointed out...

Samuel Arbesman: The Magic of Code review - the spark ages

Jon Turney Wednesday, 11 June 2025

The slightly overwrought subtitle, "How Digital Language Created and Connects Our World and Shapes Our Future", gives a good indication how computer enthusiast Sam Arbesman...

Zsuzsanna Gahse: Mountainish review - seeking refuge

Leila Greening Tuesday, 29 April 2025

Mountainish by Zsuzsanna Gahse is a collection of 515 notes, each contributing to an expansive kaleidoscope of mountain encounters. Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire in...

Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham review - New York stories

John Carvill Wednesday, 09 April 2025

Patrick McGilligan’s biography of Woody Allen weighs in at an eye-popping 800 pages, yet he waits only for...

Howard Amos: Russia Starts Here review - East meets West, via the Pskov region

India Lewis Tuesday, 01 April 2025

Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruin of Empire, the journalist Howard Amos’ first book, is a prescient and fascinating examination of the borderlands of a bellicose nation. Focusing...

Henry Gee: The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire - Why Our Species is on the Edge of Extinction review - survival instincts

Jon Turney Saturday, 15 March 2025

Henry Gee’s previous book, A Brief History of Life on Earth, made an interestingly downbeat read for a title that won the UK’s science book prize. He emphasised that a...

Jonathan Buckley: One Boat review - a shore thing

Leila Greening Tuesday, 11 March 2025

One Boat, Jonathan Buckley’s 13th novel, captures a series of encounters at the water’s edge: characters converge...

Pages

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

The future of Arts Journalism

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £49,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...

The Two Gentlemen of Verona, RSC, Stratford review - not qui...

I have two guilty secrets about the theatre – okay, two I’m prepared to own up to right here, right now. I quite enjoy some...

Beating Hearts review - kiss kiss, slam slam

Andrew Garfield was 29 when he played the teenage Spiderman and Jennifer Grey was 27 when she took on a decade-younger-than-her character called “...

BBC Proms: Anoushka Shankar 'Chapters' review - so...

You can't explain stage presence like Anoushka Shankar’s. It just "is". When she steps out in front of a completely packed Royal Albert Hall, and...

Elschenbroich, Grynyuk / Fibonacci Quartet, Edinburgh Intern...

Leonard Elschenbroich and Alexei Grynyuk crafted a fine programme for their EIF recital, centring around Brahms’ relationship with the Schumanns....

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Fit Prince / Undersigned

The Fit Prince (who gets switched on the square in the frosty castle the night before (insert public holiday here)), Pleasance...

Materialists review - a misfiring romcom or an undercooked s...
The Canadian-Korean director Celine Song burst onto the scene with her debut feature, Past Lives, two years ago, a bittersweet...

Album: Marissa Nadler - New Radiations
“I will fly around the world just to forget you” are the opening words of “It Hits Harder,” the first track on New Radiations. The song...

BBC Proms: Akhmetshina, LPO, Gardner review - liquid luxurie...
Water surged through this Prom from first spray to last drop....

theartsdesk Q&A: actor Leonie Benesch on playing an over...
The German actor Leonie Benesch has an issue with...

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!
Simply enter your email address in the box below
View previous newsletters