Lifestyle

  • A haunting tale of cat and mouse as a child takes on a serial killer
    Thursday, 11th March 2010
    A first-time author’s deeply felt account of a boy seeking justice against the odds
    BLACKLANDS BY BELINDA BAUER Corgi, £7.99 by Zoe Strimpel EXMOOR dripped with dirty bracken, rough, colourless grass, prickly gorse, and last year’s heather, so black it looked as if wet fire had swept across the landscape, taking the trees with it and leaving the moor cold and exposed to face the winter unprotected. Drizzle dissolved the close horizons and blurred heaven and earth into a grey cocoon around the only visible landmark – a twelve-year-old boy in slick black waterproof trousers but no hat, alone with a spade.” So begins screenwriter Belinda Bauer’s deeply atmospheric, remarkably... [Read more]

  • OUT OF OFFICE
    Thursday, 28th January 2010
    TIMOTHY BARBER
    TURNER AT TATE BRITAIN There are just a few more days to catch Tate Britain’s superb exhibition Turner & the Masters, examining the influence Turner’s artistic forebears played on his career, and... [Read more]
  • From Russia with love – and money
    Monday, 25th January 2010
    A rags-to-riches tale of a woman and her love for a Russian oligarch is a great winter evening read
    THE OLIGARCH'S WIFE By ANNA BLUNDY Preface, £12.99 Anna Blundy, an impossibly glamorous-looking journalist and daughter of the late foreign correspondent Peter Blundy, knows her subject well. A... [Read more]
  • How a wedding-phobic divorcee came to fall in love with marriage
    Thursday, 14th January 2010
    A best-selling author tells how she made peace with holy matrimony
    Zoe Strimpel
    COMMITTED BY ELIZABETH GILBERT Bloomsbury, £12.99 ELIZABETH GILBERT shot to fame with her memoir Eat, Pray, Love – it was such a hit that a film version starring Julia Roberts is set for release... [Read more]
  • OUT OF OFFICE
    Thursday, 14th January 2010
    ZOE STRIMPEL
    ICE SCULPTURE COMES TO CANARY WHARF If it’s a winter challenge that combines skill, beauty and speed, it must be ice-sculpting. Five teams from Europe descend on the Wharf this week to compete... [Read more]
  • John Irving’s complicated, hostile America hits the mark once again
    Thursday, 7th January 2010
    History meets strife, love, family and death in a snowy US epic that ambitiously spans half a century
    LAST NIGHT IN TWISTED RIVER BY JOHN IRVING Bloomsbury, £12.99 **** ANOTHER epic north American novel set amid the woods and snow from the author of The Cider House Rules, this book begins in a... [Read more]
  • OUT OF OFFICE
    Thursday, 7th January 2010
    ZOE STRIMPEL
    JUST OPENED: THE CARETAKER Jonathan Pryce stars in this hotly anticipated rendering of Harold Pinter’s sixth play.?It’s the late Pinter at his best, in a spare, super-tense story revolving around a... [Read more]
  • What to read this Christmas
    Wednesday, 16th December 2009
    From high-brow to low-brow, theories behind the credit crunch to war history, 2010’s been a fascinating year in books
    Thrillers THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST BY STIEG LARSSON Maclehose, £18.99 The third and final novel in the late Swedish crime writer’s hugely popular Millennium Trilogy – all three books... [Read more]
  • OUT OF OFFICE
    Thursday, 26th November 2009
    TIMOTHY BARBER
    THE GRUFFALO AT THE APOLLO THEATRE Families looking for a child-friendly Christmas show without having to resort to watching I’m A Celebrity rejects in panto could plump for a stage adaptation... [Read more]
  • A tale of betrayal and backstabbing in vicious Westminster-on-the-Tiber
    Thursday, 26th November 2009
    Echoes of British politics make Robert Harris's latest a gripping read
    Jeremy Hazlehurst
    LUSTRUMBY ROBERT HARRISHutchinson, £18.99 ROBERT Harris is the author of best-selling historical novels such as Fatherland and Enigma. In 2003, he wrote the first of his books based in Ancient... [Read more]
  • Black swans, blondes and other shaggy dog stories
    Thursday, 12th November 2009
    Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell's latest book is a thought-provoking and absorbing compendium of fashionable ideas
    WHAT THE DOG SAWBY MALCOLM GLADWELLPenguin, £12.99 WHETHER Malcolm Gladwell – the author of Blink, the Tipping Point and Outliers – is really the “the world’s most... [Read more]
  • Evil festers under a glass dome
    Thursday, 5th November 2009
    Stephen King is back with a tale of good and evil with a political point to make. It both annoys and thrills
    Zoe Strimpel
    UNDER THE DOMEBY STEPHEN KINGHodder & Stoughton £19.99THE MASTER of the slow-burn thriller about the bad things that happen when people are trapped together in one place has found another... [Read more]
  • A second dose of the fabulous freakish truth
    Thursday, 29th October 2009
    Why prostitutes' salaries have fallen, what happens when monkeys learn about money and that's just the beginning
    SUPERFREAKONOMICSBY STEPHEN DUBNER AND STEVEN LEVITTPENGUIN, £20.00 WRITING a sequel to one of best-selling pop economics books of the last decade was always going to be hard. And it took... [Read more]
  • Heroes of sport that touched England's great cricket legend
    Thursday, 22nd October 2009
    Sir Ian Botham has written an uplifting account of the personalities that made his career. It's a sports-buff's must have
    MY SPORTING HEROESBY IAN BOTHAMMainstream, £18.99 WHEN AN icon such as Sir Ian Botham lists you among his sporting heroes, then you know you have a story to tell. Fresh from the success of his... [Read more]
  • Madoff's fraud was driven by pure revenge
    Thursday, 15th October 2009
    The fraud of the century was all not about greed, says a new book, but a man proving that he had power
    Zoe Strimpel
    THE BELIEVERSBY ADAM LEBOROrion, £18.99Budapest-based journalist Adam LeBor’s book about the world’s greatest fraudster comes on the heels of American investigative journalist Erin... [Read more]
  • How to make a career part of a happy life
    Thursday, 8th October 2009
    A French sage tells women that a succesful career needn't get in the way of pleasure
    WOMEN, WORK AND THE ART OF SAVOIR FAIREBY MIREILLE GUILIANOSimon and Schuster, £12.99**** BEFORE WRITING the bestseller, French Women Don’t Get Fat, Guiliano was a top business woman... [Read more]
  • Violence, misogyny and computer hacking in a dark Swedish thriller
    Thursday, 1st October 2009
    Best-selling trilogy featuring a great female hero comes to a cracking finish, writes Zoe Strimpel
    Zoe Strimpel
    THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NESTBY STIEG LARSSONQuercus, £18.99****THE THIRD in the Millennium trilogy, this is perhaps the only one of best-selling Swedish thriller writer Stieg... [Read more]
  • OUT OF OFFICE
    Thursday, 1st October 2009
    TIMOTHY BARBER
    LOVE’S LABOURS LOST AT THE GLOBEShakespeare’s popular comedy rounds off the 2009 season at London’s traditional outdoor theatre. The show is a revival of artistic director Dominic... [Read more]
  • At 89, the champion of horse thrillers has finally slowed down
    Thursday, 24th September 2009
    A bookie winds up in a grave danger in Francis's new thriller, but it's hard to care
    Zoe Strimpel
    EVEN MONEYBY DICK FRANCIS AND FELIX FRANCISMichael Joseph, £18.99 THE action opens at a racecourse – where else? Ned Talbot, an independent bookie, is at Royal Ascot drawing to the end of... [Read more]
  • THE JOY OF A GOOD STOVE
    Thursday, 24th September 2009
    THE LONG LAUNCH...
    JEFF GALVINWE FOLLOW THE GALVIN BROTHERS AS THEY COUNT DOWN TO THE OPENING OF THEIR NEW CITY RESTAURANT A GOOD STOVE is the heart of any restaurant, so you just have to make sure it’s right.... [Read more]
  • Brown is back, with silly plots, codes and terrible prose back
    Thursday, 17th September 2009
    The Da Vinci Code author still can't write, but nothing can stop this being a best-seller
    THE LOST SYMBOLBY DAN BROWNBantam Press, £18.99 WITH AN initial print run of a million copies in the UK alone, and 6.5m worldwide, there is no doubt that Dan Brown’s latest – the... [Read more]
  • The definitive Madoff book, with panache
    Thursday, 10th September 2009
    A journalist examines what drove people to trust the biggest crook in American finance
    MADOFF: THE MAN WHO STOLE $65MBY ERIN ARVEDLUNDPenguin, £9.99 ERIN ARVEDLUND has written this book with relish – and not a small amount of “I told you so”. This is because, as... [Read more]
  • Faulks takes aim at London, the City and Dickens
    Thursday, 3rd September 2009
    Middle England's favourite writer looks at a nation in the grip of a financial meltdown
    A WEEK IN DECEMBERBY SEBASTIAN FAULKSHutchinson, £18.99 WITH HIS interest in the historical past and his solid, straightforward prose, Sebastian Faulks is the bard of Middle England. His most... [Read more]
  • Beneath the bonnet of the geek's geek
    Thursday, 20th August 2009
    A collection of writing from the scruffy one from TV's Top Gear hints at hidden depths
    CAR FEVERBY JAMES MAYHodder & Stoughton, £18.99 HE might not have quite such a high profile as his co-presenters on the BBC’s Top Gear programme, but James May is the most likeable of... [Read more]
  • The cut-throat world of New York's super-rich
    Thursday, 13th August 2009
    A well-connected Manhattan journalist has written a deliciously juicy novel about the city's hedge funders and their wives
    HEDGE FUND WIVESBY TATIANA BONCOMPAGNIHarper Collins, £6.99 IT may sound a little out of date – after all, we’re so over hedgies and their failed fortunes. Except the New York hedge... [Read more]
  • OUT OF OFFICE
    Thursday, 6th August 2009
    ZOE STRIMPEL
    JAZZ AT VIVAT BACCHUSClerkenwell dwellers not content with food and fine wine should pop along to Vivat Bacchus in Farringdon this Saturday, where jazz pianist Jason Thompson (who has entertained the... [Read more]
  • How the Russian oligarchs came to rise and reign in boomtime London
    Thursday, 6th August 2009
    A gripping chronicle of the decadence, danger and sheer power that defined a phenomenon
    LONDONGRADBY MARK HOLLINGSWORTH AND STEWART LANSLEYFourth Estate, £12.99ONE of the most visible signs of the times over the past few years has been the increasing Russification of London. The... [Read more]
  • How to find love? Try giving up sex
    Thursday, 30th July 2009
    A year-long experiment in chastity yields plenty of fodder for reflection and some home truths about society and intimacy
    CHASTENEDBY HEPHZIBAH ANDERSONChatto & Windus, £12.99 I FEEL a little bad for Hephzibah Anderson. She’s gone ahead and voiced the doleful narrative of a many a well-heeled, well-... [Read more]
  • OUT OF OFFICE
    Thursday, 30th July 2009
    ZOE STRIMPEL
    JAMIE’S ITALIAN IN CANARY WHARF Oliver’s hit restaurant chain comes to Canary Wharf, opening next Wednesday as a prime example of the area’s up and coming food scene. Expect pasta... [Read more]
  • Best beach reads
    Thursday, 23rd July 2009
    Bring a suitcase: you're going to get through these books so fast you'll need one. We pick a thriller-heavy set of the year's best reads
    MY SOUL TO TAKE by Yrsa SigurdardottirHodder, £11.99This Icelandic thriller is cooler than most from the get go. Where else could you find a ballsy Reykjavik lawyer with little time for... [Read more]
  • Mixing business with glamour and killer heels
    Thursday, 16th July 2009
    The tale of the brains behind Jimmy Choo doesn't always focus on her stiletto-sharp commercial brain
    Zoe Strimpel
    THE TOWERING WORLD OF JIMMY CHOO  By Lauren Goldstein Crowe and Sagra Maceira de RosanBLOOMSBURY £18.99 PART business manual and part snoopy fashion reportage, the tale of super-brand... [Read more]
  • OUT OF OFFICE
    Thursday, 16th July 2009
    TIMOTHY BARBER
    JERUSALEM AT THE ROYAL COURTJez Butterworth, who has received great acclaim for his previous Royal Court plays including Mojo, The Night Heron and The Winterling, is returning to the Sloane Square... [Read more]
  • A banker's bash at philosophy is short on logic
    Thursday, 9th July 2009
    A CEO-priest tries to discover the City's ethical heart, but disappointingly gets lost along the way
    Jeremy Hazlehurst
    GOOD VALUEBy Stephen GreenALLEN LANE, £20 SAMUEL JOHNSON famously opined about watching a dog walk on its hind legs: it is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all. Something... [Read more]
  • Cricket's divine comedy, from WG to pedalos
    Thursday, 2nd July 2009
    A comical new book about the history of cricketing eccentrics is just the thing to make those Ashes rain-breaks fly by
    AND GOD CREATED CRICKETBy Simon HughesDOUBLEDAY, £20WITH the Ashes series approaching, the minds of anybody who has ever enjoyed a sleepy afternoon listening to the thwack of leather on willow... [Read more]
  • Bullets, bombs and books on the front line
    Thursday, 25th June 2009
    A soldier's memoir about the war in Afghanistan gives a fascinating insight into the life of the modern British soldier
    THE JUNIOR OFFICERS’ READING CLUB: KILLING TIME AND FIGHTING WARSBy Patrick HennesseyPENGUIN, £16.99PATRICK HENNESSEY is a 27-year-old trainee barrister, who happens to have spent the... [Read more]
  • Why China is destined to take over the world
    Thursday, 18th June 2009
    A new book argues that the country will soon become dominant
    Zoe Strimpel
    <!--StartFragment--> WHEN CHINA RULES THE WORLDBy Martin JacquesFABER & FABER, £16.99 THE “WHEN” – as opposed to the “if” – that now prefaces talk of... [Read more]
  • When weather is a matter of life and death
    Thursday, 11th June 2009
    An orginial take on WWII revolves around a maths genius's attempt to discover a meteoroligical secret
    Zoe Strimpel
    TURBULENCEBy Giles FodenFABER & FABER, £16.99 GILES FODEN’S The Last King of Scotland was a masterful book and became a masterful film because of its compelling combination of... [Read more]
  • Shivers abound in this Gothic page-turner
    Thursday, 4th June 2009
    Sarah Waters' eye for detail and skill for writing makes her sophisticated ghost story very scary and a cracking read
    <!--StartFragment--> THE LITTLE STRANGERBy Sarah WatersVIRAGO, £16.99 THIS venerable, multi-award winning novelist (shortlisted for the Booker Prize twice with Fingersmith and Nightwatch)... [Read more]
  • The truth about the toughest MBA out there
    Thursday, 28th May 2009
    Two gruelling years of number crunching, Harvard-style, make for an absorbing, often odd story
    Zoe Strimpel
    WHAT THEY TEACH YOU AT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOLBy Philip Delves BroughtonVIKING, £12.99 GRADUATES of the Harvard MBA programme run the World Bank, the American Treasury, General Electric,... [Read more]
  • Dumb luck and accidents can make you rich
    Thursday, 21st May 2009
    A witty, erudite book gallops over time and space to show that if you want to predict success, economics can only take you so far
    <!--StartFragment--> FALSE ECONOMYBy Alan BeattieViking, £20 FOR THE past two centuries, Argentina has had almost identical economic potential to the USA: plentiful natural resources, a... [Read more]
  • Monica Ali's Brick Lane follow-up never really reaches boiling point
    Thursday, 14th May 2009
    THE TAINT OF MIDAS
    Anne Zouroudi
    THERE is something irresistible about a modern-day murder mystery set against the ancient sites of Greek mythology. Combine such a piquant setting with a cracking plot and a vividly colourful... [Read more]
  • Monica Ali's Brick Lane follow-up never really reaches boiling point
    Thursday, 14th May 2009
    IN THE KITCHEN
    Monica Ali
    ALTHOUGH she published a book called Alentejo Clue in 2006, this is being seen as the follow-up to Ali’s much-trumpeted Brick Lane. Once again it tackles the prickly topic of immigrants in... [Read more]
  • Monica Ali's Brick Lane follow-up never really reaches boiling point
    Thursday, 14th May 2009
    FOOL'S GOLD
    Gillian Tett
    ONE of the most famous books to come out of the boom of the Eighties was Barbarians at the Gate. In this book, it seems that the nerds have taken over from Conan and his chums. In fact, the subtitle... [Read more]