The szchphthiel on the back of Richard Morgan’s Market Forces suggests that “what he did for science fiction, he now does for the thriller”. Well, if what he did for sf was introduce large trade paperbacks with shiny glossy covers h[…]

I am NOT the Beastmaster!: back when I was new to the Interweb I read the comics USENET groups. One of the most reliably perceptive writers there was a guy called Marc Singer, and when I stopped reading the newsgroups I… forgot all about him. U[…]

So if you’ve taken my advice and wandered up to Cork Street in London’s Mayfair to look at the giant jelly babies, please take a few minutes to have a look at the Redfern Gallery. The main show at the moment is a series of very simple wor[…]

ANTHEMS (Part 4 of 4)
Continued from New York London Paris Munich
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ENVOI
A conclusion to this somewhat forced ramble might better belong somewhere else than here, but there is no political blog as such (or at least not a permanent one) here an[…]

ANTHEMS (Part 1 of 4)
This is a somewhat quixotic attempt to write a cross-blog entry inspired by recent reading, viewing and listening. Whether or not it works, well, it’s up to you…
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TOMMY
Auth. Richard Holmes
It wasn’t i[…]

Not an artist given to great subtlety, Mauro Perucchetti’s new show at Beaux Arts* is a big punchy thrill. For a start, as you walk up Cork Street, three four foot-tall jelly babies look out at you from inside the gallery, bulbous, translucent […]

The Limits Of Photography: overheard on the tube. Speaker – teenage sloane on way to Camden to buy a T-Shirt (circumstantial detail provided by same, at high volume).
“I hate people who won’t be photographed, it’s so stupid. T[…]

2004 Man Booker Shortlist and Profiles[…]

Good coverage of the MomArt fire of a few months back from the Guardian here: MomArt don’t come out of this terribly well.
There’s the text of an interview with Michael Craig-Martin, in which he comes off as being a reasonable sort of fe[…]

kid-lit comment: wicked stepmothers vs the merely ill-advised: (mild spoilers alert)
Hattie’s aunt in Tom’s Midnight Garden is classic fairytale wicked – unstintingly cruel and cold toward Hattie, her orphan niece, who in her lonel[…]