Harriet Lane’s memorably unsettling 2012 novel, about an overlooked sub-editor who infiltrates the literary elite, has been adapted for stage by Lucinda Coxon. Its combination of psychological thriller and industry satire is decently translated, but a conservative production from Bridge … Continue reading
James Graham’s portrait of Seventies politics, This House, recently enjoyed a West End outing, and his latest epic venture into Britain’s past may well follow suit. If slightly weighed down by detailed research, it’s still a riveting depiction of the birth … Continue reading
Hand to God actress Jemima Rooper talks puppetry, repression and blind casting. Read my full Ham & High interview here
Back in 2008, Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross prank-called Andrews Sachs, claiming Brand had slept with his granddaughter. Daniel Dingsdale’s debut Dark Tourism opens with a similar incident: two radio shock jocks, one a pale imitation of Brand, and a joke … Continue reading
Morris Honeyspoon is a monster. In editorial conference, he halts objections with a blast of his air horn, and when a puppyish staffer challenges his blanket anti-immigration policy, Roman helmet-clutching Morris takes sadistic pleasure in ritually humiliating him. It’s not … Continue reading
“Fury Over Sharia Law For Toddlers!” No, not a prime example of spoof headline generator Daily Mail-o-matic, but the latest piece of fantastical scaremongering from the Clarion, a 125-year-old (semi-)fictional rag that’s upped sales by splashing on immigration every day … Continue reading
Nearly 50 years after Barthes proclaimed the death of the author, it is with great sadness and accompanying X Factor contestant departure music that I announce the death of the critic. Or if not the death, at least the inexorable decline. The critic … Continue reading
