We turn to poetry in times of need, but can it really help? And why doesn’t it sell more copies? Continue reading Bryan Appleyard on the emotive force of poetry
DNA test to prove legend of Pocahontas and the mulberry tree
The legend that Pocahontas, the Native American princess brought to England 400 years ago, planted a mulberry tree that still bears fruit is to be tested by scientists. Continue reading DNA test to prove legend of Pocahontas and the mulberry tree
Robert Holdstock: fantasy fiction writer
Although he wrote more than 40 books in a career that began in the mid-1970s, Robert Holdstock will probably always be best known as the author of Mythago Wood, a novel in which a patch of primeval English woodland is revealed as a gateway into the human subconscious, and the birthplace of myth. Michael Moorcock called it “the outstanding fantasy book of the 1980s”, and it won the British Science Fiction Award, the World Fantasy Award, and, as La Forêt des Mythagos, was awarded a special Grand Prix de l’imaginaire. Continue reading Robert Holdstock: fantasy fiction writer
School expels vampires and Alex Rider
Out with Alex Rider and in with William Brown. A leading head teacher has vetoed some of the most popular modern children’s fiction for his school library, declaring it “so simplistic, brutal or banal” that it is barely worth reading. Continue reading School expels vampires and Alex Rider
Tudor treachery and fantasy tales
This manor has links to Henry VIII and a children’s storybook hero Continue reading Tudor treachery and fantasy tales
Table Talk: The Fable, London EC1
The writer Aesop, praised by Sophocles, loved by Socrates, admired by Aristotle, has been made into a cocktail. Or at least, the Aesop’s Fable cocktail — pink, natch — is one of the greasy It-cocktails on offer at The Fable, a new fairytale- themed restaurant under an unfairytale-like dirty tramp bridge next to a thundering A road in Holborn. Continue reading Table Talk: The Fable, London EC1
A Little History of Literature by John Sutherland
Inspired by Ernst Gombrich’s A Little History of the World , which was written for a friend’s daughter in 1935, but became a surprise bestseller on its republication in 2005, Yale’s Little Histories imprint sets out to provide “vivid storybook introductions for the young and old alike” to the monolithic abstracts of human culture. Continue reading A Little History of Literature by John Sutherland
Cherchez la femme in literature row
Literature may purport to open the mind but in France it seems to serve as a pretext for perpetuating narrow sexist stereotypes. Continue reading Cherchez la femme in literature row
University fat cat claims for £2 rail ticket
The principal of one of Scotland’s biggest universities has claimed for a slice of cake, a bottle of water and a £2 rail fare on expenses, despite earning more than a quarter of a million pounds a year. Continue reading University fat cat claims for £2 rail ticket
Dylan awarded Nobel prize for literature
Bob Dylan has become the first songwriter to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Continue reading Dylan awarded Nobel prize for literature