… and to be entirely appropriate, Manners Maketh the Woman too! No, I am not being supercilious or patronising, but I do bemoan the death of basic manners. In everyday life we see all nods to basic gracious living disappear. This is not about class, nor status, nor social standing. It is about equipping our children, in particular, for challenging educational and career opportunities in their lives. Teaching by example that manners matter is perhaps the very best way. How …
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Amid a certain amount of consternation, Bernardine Evaristo shared this year’s Booker Prize with Margaret Atwood. It’s the third time in its history that two authors have shared this most …
I have a friend who is originally from the States and I recently told her that, of all the places in the USA, I’d love to visit Maine first. She …
The London Review of Books turned forty this year. For some twenty of those forty years I have been a subscriber—not just a subscriber, but the kind of fanatic who …
When I read a review of Adam Mars-Jones’s novel Pilcrow in 2008, I was determined to buy it even though it was a big, expensive hardback. When the sequel, Cedilla, …
The nice thing about working in the same bookshop for a while is that you get to know your customers, especially your regular customers. You develop a good sense of …
The first thing to note about Coventry by Rachel Cusk is that it is not a sequel to her (brilliant) trilogy of novels, Outline, Transit, and Kudos. Faber do their …
Reading an easy book is like turning on the telly, regardless of what’s on, and letting it wash over you. Not that there’s nothing wrong with that when you need …
It took me a long time to come around to reading science fiction. I’ve always been a big fan of fantasy literature, and I’ve followed Star Trek on screen from …
The incomparable Patti Smith celebrates the passing of another decade in her life with The Year of the Monkey. In her seventieth year, this prolific punk-rock poet sets out on …
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