IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS Anyone with coronavirus symptoms – a new persistent cough, fever or loss of sense of taste or smell – should self-isolate and order a test. If you test positive you must stay at home for at least 10 days. If you test negative you no longer …...Read More
Confused about Britain's lockdown rules? Here's what you can and can't do now
CHILDREN'S
THE UNADOPTABLES by Hana Tooke (Puffin £12.99, 400 pp) THE UNADOPTABLES by Hana Tooke (Puffin £12.99, 400 pp) In the autumn of 1886, five babies are left in quick succession, each with an intriguing item, outside an Amsterdam orphanage run by the chilling Elinora Gassbeek. Twelve years later the children …...Read More
SHORT STORIES
SUPPORTING CAST by Kit de Waal (Penguin £8.99, 144 pp) SUPPORTING CAST by Kit de Waal (Penguin £8.99, 144 pp) The characters in Kit de Waal’s superb collection of short stories have appeared elsewhere in her writing, hanging out on the fringes of the story and then disappearing into the …...Read More
WHAT BOOK would author John Boyne take to a desert island?
. . . are you reading now? Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. I recently bought a beautiful illustrated edition, published by The Folio Society and translated by Adam Thorpe. It’s one of those novels that I’ve been meaning to read for decades but somehow never got around to. Right now, …...Read More
'Smells' book tells how filth once flowed through our streets
BOOK OF THE WEEK SMELLS by Robert Muchembled (Polity £17.99, 260 pp) We are fortunate to live in a deodorised age, benefiting from hot water, flush lavatories, plumbed-in bathrooms, power showers, washing machines, mains drainage systems, soap, detergent and shampoo. Always excepting the odd tramp and the recent fad for …...Read More
Author celebrates sharks and insists they aren't terrifying killers
NATURE EMPERORS OF THE DEEP by William McKeever (William Collins £20, 272 pp) Sharks are older than trees. The creatures first appeared 450 million years ago, way before those tall things with leaves. They’ve survived several extinction-level events, including the one that killed the dinosaurs. Yet now they face the …...Read More
I'll have a 99 with petrol sprinkles!
SCIENCE NATURAL by Alan Levinovitz (Profile £20, 272 pp) It’s a good word, natural. Natural birth, natural food, natural fibres: all are excellent, I think we’d agree. But Alan Levinovitz, an American professor of religion, has a more nuanced view of the subject. He feels that the worship of nature …...Read More
Author explains how he beat anxiety and learned to laugh
MEMOIR ANXIOUS MAN by Josh Roberts (Yellow Kite £14.99, 208 pp) One morning in 2016, Josh Roberts woke up with a hangover. Or so he thought. As the day wore on, however, the 26-year-old realised this was more than just a headache after too many beers. His heart was pounding, …...Read More
Charlie Elphicke: Conservative criticised for handling of issues
The former Dover MP has been convicted for three sex attacks on Thursday But Elphicke controversially then had the whip restored in December 2018 The Conservative Party is facing serious questions over its handling of allegations against Charlie Elphicke after his conviction yesterday for three sex attacks. The then MP …...Read More
Damning testimony is more proof that sex pest Elphicke had been a menace to women for years
Giving evidence in court, Charlie Elphicke wept as he listed a number of regrets that he had. And yet as he was last night found guilty of three charges of sexual assault many will conclude that his biggest regret of all was being found out. Indeed, so frequent were his …...Read More
