Alexei has a kinda change of heart - BEFORE Alexei Sayle was an author, film actor and columnist, he was a stand-up comic. Today, as his fifth book, Mister ...>more

Dishing the dirt on village people - HOW should you act when a transsexual wants to show you her latest post-op? Is it appropriate to talk to a celebrity when ...>more

The first to grasp at the flaws of modernity - THIS is a “warts and all” biography about the son of a Unitarian preacher who became a stimulating raconteur, essayist...>more

Heaven and El with a taste of Spain - THE kitchen secrets of El Parador have kept happy regulars coming back to what critics call one of London’s finest Spanish ...>more

Source of national bride: inside story of Palestine - THE main title of Dr Karmi’s brilliant and searching book – Married to Another Man – may puzzle some readers, but ...>more

Health hero’s verse - FORMER US president Bill Clinton hailed him as “an American health hero” for his pioneering medical work in war-torn countries around the ...>more

Unlikely meeting of two lost souls - ON a chilly autumn night, an elegantly dressed figure is picking his way through the alleys and snickleways of Hampstead. >more

Heath jogger runs through a long list of his enemies - Bernard Donoughue was once domiciled in Kentish Town, but, in spirit, he seems to have lived in ...>more

‘How do I do it all? With charm and Redoxon’ - MAUREEN Lipman has crossed the border. After almost 30 years in bosky Muswell Hill she has left...>more

A best book that was born out of bitterness - THE most frightening aspect of Graham Bendel’s psychological thriller/ murder mystery A Nasty Piece of Work is his ...>more

Our house: Africa in London - IT was built as the very image of Victorian respectability, a handsome four-storey villa for a well-to-do family in one of the leafier parts of...>more

50 who ‘buggered up Britain’: a Daily Mail man lets them have it - QUENTIN Letts is the rising star of the Daily Mail, a parliamentary sketch writer and an unorthodox ...>more

Green’s search for slanging match - EVERY jibe, saw, scuttlebutt and utterance of slang in the modern English language begins life as code for the secret or the ...>more

Posters that expanded London - IT has been 100 years since the first poster was slapped up with wallpaper paste on the platforms of the Tube. >more

Photographers who fought to tell a war story - SHE had crawled on her belly across fields and through ditches as shells flew overhead and bullets whistled past her. >more

So Linda didn’t win the Booker, but think of the sales (and the free designer dress) - EBULLIENT Linda Grant (pictured), the only woman on this year’s Man ...>more

Big and little lies in an absence of absolute truth - WHAT is fascinating is that, nearly 70 years after he wrote them, the subjects of George Orwell’s essays in Books...>more

Buried in history: the writer who fought to end slave trade - THE life of the 18th-century freedom fighter Olaudah Equiano reads like an improbable adventure story. >more

Lone, sane voice in a credit crisis - DIDN’T anyone see this financial crisis coming? Yes, at least one man did though he wasn’t an expert or an economist – and that... > more

A prodigy rescued from the dustbin of art history - BOOZING and gambling followed by midnight flits from creditors – artist George Morland’s subjects may have... > more

How dandy Osbert blazed a cartoon trail - SOME of the best things in life – and the funniest – happen by chance. Such is the case of the pocket cartoon...>more

Scottish folk songwriter who symbolised Italy’s liberation - THIS book is the first half of a detailed life study of Hamish Henderson, the pioneering Scottish poet, translator...>more

A passionate champion of the politically heroic - ENTIRELY up to you, like Marmite. But love him or loathe him, at 85, Richard Attenborough remains an extraordinary ...>more

The John Snow who made his own headlines - HE'S one of history’s great heroic figures. But mention his name in our age of celebrity and many will think you’re talking ...>more

The big draw of learning to see - LEARNING to draw is really a matter of learning to see,” claims Kimon Nicolaides in his seminal... > more

Malya’s posthumous debut - THERE is a tone of sweet melancholy among Malya Woolf’s friends when they reflect on what they know about her life. > more

Art of epiphanies and small miracles - WENDY Perriam is busy researching her next book of stories at the moment. > more

Embracing feral youth of the 50s - BLOOD is flowing and Britain is embroiled in a moral panic with teenage gangs running amok with flick-knives... > more

The romantic revolutionary - MAYBE it’s the neat-trimmed side-parting.
Or the tight-fitting tweed suit? But conjure up a mental... > more

Misplaced faith in the gods of disaster politics - THE Shock Doctrine is an explosive book with an unrelenting thesis – that the 20th century... > more

Candid camera: behind the scenes of the golden age of cinema stills - HANGING from a wobbly clock face high above a bustling city street while the cameras whirred... > more

A tragedy of spies assassins and informers - SPYING and intelligence gathering must be the second oldest profession in the world, if we accept what is often... > more

History’s great publicists and lives of the kitsch and famous - THE Urban Man suddenly appeared behind the bars of a cage at London Zoo and, for two weeks, became... > more

Whipping up hype, or the naked truth about Jamie Oliver? - JAMIE Oliver’s food is a symbol of a new Britain, a marker of how much our diets have improved in the... > more

The Kit-Cat Club: Friends who Imagined a Nation - FORTY-SEVEN Kit kat bars are devoured in Britain every second, and 22 factories around the world pump... > more

Bringing some joy back into our lives - THERE’S nothing like a good Jewish joke. So, as gloom descends on the globe – and some scientists insist the future of Earth... > more

Religious foundations of man who designed Big Ben - AUGUSTUS Pugin’s work has graced an infinite amount of postcards, tea towels and mugs. The product of... > more

Booker’s cool ‘cabinet secretary’ - IT'S the 40th. So as the excitement mounts for the announcement this week of the... > more

Man who gave boxing greats a helping hand - IT’S an eye-wincer of a photo. Blood isn’t just streaming from Henry Cooper’s left eye, it’s gushing, splattering his... > more

Dirk Bogarde - In his own words… picture of a two-faced screen idol in Nightporter -
Dirk Bogarde was two-faced, to say the least. He insisted that the camera... > more

The Goodie, the bad, the ugly - IT’S not easy being a celebrity, and nobody knows that better than Bill Oddie, who has had a impressive career as a comedian... > more

Aussie hooked on Britain’s fish dishes - IT’S hardly exotic: Our national dish of fish and chips has been held up and laughed at by foodies as an example of everything... > more

Son sheds light on Lyttelton story - BOUQUETS of flowers were left outside Mornington Crescent Tube station in tribute to Humphrey Lyttelton when the jazz... > more

Precise, but no sentimentality - FOR Pamela Beasant , poetry is “a secret place”. Born in Glasgow and now living in Stromness, Orkney, she came to that awesome... > more

Bill’s part in the 1955 World Cup - THE success of the project has taken actor Bill Paterson somewhat by surprise. “It’s just a wee book with a few of my... > more

Living idol – 50 years in the making of a national institution - BIBLE-basher? Yes, to some extent. Gay popstar? Those are rumours without substance. > more

Get real! It’s an antidote to these utopians - JOHN Gray is an Oxford professor of politics who cares little for orthodox academic specialties. His book – Black Mass... > more

Tough on crime – but was it effective? - IN 1908 Winston Churchill, the then Home Secretary in a liberal government, made a remarkable... > more

Long over ‘dew’ look at this fear and self-loathing - THERE’S an old Woody Allen joke in one of his films where a friend mentions the word “dew... > more

The chaotic grandma whose genius won literary acclaim - IF the novelist Penelope Fitzgerald had been a willing victim of today’s indulgent TV... > more

Lessing’s more: prized author Doris goes on experimenting - DORIS Lessing, who lives in West Hampstead, is the author of 60 books, and recently won... > more

Life in the East End of a small planet - WHEN the air raid siren sounded, the sensible response would be to find the nearest available public... > more

Can Arsenal FC's Arsène Wenger grab the glory without a big pot of gold? - AS the teenager slalomed and skipped past defenders on a jet-heeled... > more

Cleopatra for children by author mummy Caroline Corby - THIS is a book aimed at inspiring children aged nine or older to read history but, here... > more

Buddhism - The elusive nature of the beast - IN his book offering us a “very short introduction” to Buddhism, Damien Keown begins... > more

The Battle for China's past. Then and Mao: influence of an ‘emperor’ on a new superpower - I TOOK a deep breath after finishing this book. > more

Edwardian fun and Games - MADNESS, may hem, cautionary tales… take heart Olympics organisers, when it comes to the biggest sporting... > more

Are the healing Indians a bunch of cowboys? - AN Englishman’s journey to the ancient heart of North American Indian culture begins with a chance meeting outside a ...>more

Why we must keep an eye on the rise of surveillance society - SURVEILLANCE Un limited is about eavesdropping. It paints a scary, futuristic scenario of how ...>more

Funny how it all goes wobbly at 40 - THEY say life begins at 40, but for comedian Mark Steel (right) it’s the beginning of the end. Steel’s funny and poignant...>more

A timely reminder of Soho and Fitzrovia’s rich history - ED Glinert’s West End Chronicles is a heady mix of stories about Soho and Fitzrovia and of the >more

Sage observations on a clump of hedge parsley - IN 1842 Charles Darwin left London and went to live in Down House near Orpington in Kent. The man we see as ...>more

Sifting clues to the mind of a literary genius- MOST famous for plays such as Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Happy Days, in which tramps philosophise about ...>more

Story of love and treachery that cuts to art of Venetian glass-making - MARINA Fiorato writes with as much authority about her own experience of childbirth as she ...>more

We all want to change the world - IT was the year we booked to go to France, to stay at the home of a Communist professor from the Sorbonne, whose country retreat ...>more

Author’s Suspicions clinch a top award - AS a journalist and former national newspaper literary editor, Kate Summerscale knows the inside secret score and the hassle ...>more

The naked peer in flip flops and other strange stories - JEREMY Lewis has always been addicted to embellishing anecdotes or stories, preferably of... > more

New Mayor Boris Johnson opens next chapter -THIS is Boris biography brought up to date when on May 1 this year he toppled Red Ken. > more

Searing insight and empathy from essayist Andrew O'Hagan - AS the economy tightens and everyone feels the pinch, it is worth looking back to see what... > more

HG Wells’ time as a sex machine - HIS mother was a lady’s maid, his father a gardener. And he was born in a shabby bedroom over a china shop... > more

X marks the spot for adventure - HOW do you stop your kids becoming couch potatoes, stuck on the sofa watching the telly or glued to their PlayStation? > more

Hacking into hot metal times - MICHAEL Frayn’s heartfelt and humorous novel is set in what was once Fleet Street – “a (pre-computerised)... > more

Defending freedom by fighting terror with a war on liberty - WHAT this book exposes about Guantanamo Bay and the War on Terror will terrify you... > more

The cat's out of the Bragg - HE’S a great talker. On radio you hear his persistent questions and curiosity coming across on... > more

Love for a wonderful and terrible country - ELAINE Feinstein has called her new book a novel. It is much more than that. It is a tapestry of poetry and politics and... > more

Now there’s really no excuse for holding on to ‘our’ marbles - THIS book is not a new one; but while the text is identical to previous editions, new introductions by... > more

Do football neighbours hate each other just for kicks - WE all know the best, the most thrilling, the most important local derby match of the football season is Arsenal... > more

Teenage mutant hero who's right up our street - ACCIDENTALLY kicking a snooker table leg when aiming for a football is the closest Joe Craig has ever come to... > more

Mai, Lebanon's literary rebel - EVERY once in a while comes some one who embodies the spirit of a place. Mai Ghoussoub was one. Born in Lebanon in 1952... > more

Slings and 'arrers' of Justin Irwin's outrageous fortune - HE was a high-flying executive in the charity world, but Justin Irwin’s intentions were clear the day he... > more

Bond writer's secret service to protect architectural heritage - YOU won’t find it mentioned in the official For Your Eyes Only exhibition at the Imperial War... > more

Sky's no limit on a mission to the stars - AT the bottom of every email that Anna Young sends out is the phrase: “Why do they say it is wrong that I am reaching for the... > more

UFOs and identifying flying fists and 'skins' - THE culture clash between hippies, skinheads and black nationalists erupted in Camden Town in 1967. And it was... > more

Treading a path through the moral maze of Arab writing - WRITING this novel left Egyp tian author Man soura Ez-Eldin wracked by doubts. Not just because it was... > more

Blunt message from Pinter has a sting in tail - I AM Twenty People! edited by Mimi Khilvati and Stephen Knight (Enitharmon £8.95) is the latest Poetry School... > more

Adoring audience for a dark mind - JODI Picoult is not quite an overnight sensation – she points out that she has been writing for 15 years – but her fame certainly... > more

Stories behind closed doors - TO many people they are eyesores, signs of a decaying and decrepit city – London at its worst. But for photographer Paul Talling... > more

Hats off to a portrait of the city’s past - THE men all wear hats and stare curiously at the camera, the lens still a novelty on the city streets of the mid-19th century. > more

Colourful life of Red Princess - AS Sofka Zinovieff was mourning the death of her grandmother, she remembered a gift the ageing Russian who she had been... > more

Parliament’s grand designer - WHILE many have heard of him, few people know exactly who Pugin was and what he did. Rosemary Hill’s book God’s Architect fleshes... > more

Leaving no Livingstone unturned - THROUGHOUT 1980, Ken Livingstone’s busy assassination squad had me high in their sights. I was, my comrades... > more

The shadow boxing Naipaul refuses to pulls any punches - IN his new book, A Writer’s People: Ways of Looking and Feeling – an unlikely potboiler – Nobel... > more

Extraordinary true life Deedes of legendary Boot of the Beast - IN the obsessive ego culture of old Fleet Street (and probably new Fleet Street) where fantasy raced... > more

Did you know? A secret history for the Bard’s birthday - The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare is the book with which to celebrate the Bard’s birthday this... > more

The Clerkenwell chronicles - THAT great campaigner for the poor Wat Tyler took his followers to Clerkenwell in 1381, as did the early trade unionists, the Tolpuddle... > more

A genius that flowered in the trenches- IF the First World War still has a terrible glamour about it, it could be said to lie in its poetry. We have heart-rending work by... > more

Stellar drinkers of England - FERGUS Linnane has written a sharp, funny and interesting history of this great public pleasure of the English – drinking. We live in joyless... > more

Poetry: ‘Gossip’ and ‘Mismatched shoes’ written by ‘pigs’ - FOR the serious poet, art is anything but therapeutic,” said the Torriano poet Leah Fritz in the poetry... > more

How they’re sneaking the NHS into private hands - CONFUSE and Conceal is a clear exposition of what is happening to the NHS. > more

Tapping into mind of Sillitoe - MICHAEL Cullen is a womanising criminal, a con man with an eye for an easy score, a strip club enforcer, chauffeur for a gangland... > more

Last Post echoes from the trenches - I REMEMBER as a lad sitting in the pilot’s seat of a shot down Junkers 88 in a field outside the Spitfire station at RAF Wittering... > more

A trove of things that you may not know- THIS is a ragbag of riches of more than 5,500 entries. Here are just to give you a few samples. Did you know The Bell ...>more

Reading the fuzzy line between pornography and eroticism - SEX wasn’t something you talked about in nice Jewish households when I was growing up... > more

Cue for a television phenomenon - I WAS at the 2001 Benson and Hedges Masters snooker final at a packed Wembley Arena. > more

Mystery of little Willie Starchfield - EVERYONE knows about the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann and the brutal murder of Milly Dowler... > more