Fool’s paradise: Frank McNally on a cliche beloved of obituarists
Not a day passes when a writer does not note that the deceased ‘didn’t suffer fools gladly’
Charles Dickens
Why we need to know where company directors live
Limited liability is a social contract, part of which is that owners and directors are publicly identifiable
The cause of the great reading crisis is unknown. But the solution is obvious
Someone, somewhere, has spent years, perhaps their whole life, pulling a book together. The reader gets to spend weeks reading it, and perhaps their whole life thinking about it
I’m dreaming of a mild and slightly damp Christmas, just like the ones we know
Snow probably won’t be glistening this Christmas, but the influence of the best-selling single of all time still looms
A Christmas Carol review: Gate’s imaginative, deeply spooky take works new magic on Dickens classic
Is this Christmas Carol suitable for smaller children? The tiny me would have savoured the horror as much as the joyful denouement
The Gate’s Christmas Carol: ‘It’s a different proposition to panto. It has something you can dig your teeth into’
Taking on such a beloved festive text for a family-oriented show brings several challenges
The rise and fall of Cairo, Illinois: from Huckleberry Finn’s dream destination to a town of just 1,700 people
The future was supposed to be bright for this fascinating place at the confluence of two mythic American rivers. It didn’t quite pan out that way
Attention, men: Books are sexy, but staring into a phone is not
Men are reading less these days, proving that what is rare is wonderful
Aunts fictional and real matter more to us than they may know
In praise of our aunts and women who don’t hold the title, but who have always been there for us
More sex, please: Bridget Jones, Colin Firth and the astonishing rebranding of Jane Austen
Thirty years ago, one event made Austen more popular than almost any other contemporary or close successor
Read this and weep: Books that made writers cry
John Boyne, Edel Coffey, Ferdia Lennon, Sarah Gilmartin and a dozen other authors and critics on books that had a profound emotional effect on them
It’s a pity more of us don’t identify with Scrooge, the skinflint who was capable of change
If even Ebenezer Scrooge can change, perhaps there is hope for the rest of us and for our planet
Britain’s heritage under threat from vandals targeting landmark sites
Shrewsbury’s links with A Christmas Carol targeted in latest attack that is part of an ugly trend
Steve McQueen: ‘It was always Saoirse Ronan and her mother. So there was this bond. There’s this kinship’
Director’s film Blitz, starring the Irish actor, focuses on a tight family of three trying to keep heads aloft as the bombs fall in London in 1940
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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