Modernism celebrates the century and its consequences are all around us, built into our everyday lived environments. Its place in Britain’s history is fiercely contested and its role in our future is the subject of ongoing controversy, although modernist buildings have changed our cities, politics, and identity forever. Own Hatherley applauds the ambition and explores…
Sri-Lankan-born Michelle de Krester’s seventh novel, Scary Monsters, just as migration has upended her characters’ lives. Lyle works for a sinister government department in near-future Australia. An Asian migrant, he fears repatriation and embraces “Australian values”. Scary Monster is a two-headed creature with two stories and front covers, tells a realist tale of the early…
Ornithologist and behaviour ecologist, Antone Martinho-Truswell, proves human resemblance to birds although neither we humans are not like other mammals nor fly or have feathers and lay eggs, and not descended from dinosaurs. Our defining human traits, our longevity, intelligence, monogamy and childrearing and learning and language are far more similar to birds than…
Stephen Galloway’s Truly, Madly is the biography of a marriage, a love affair that still captivates millions, is “the romance of the century”. The golden couple whose admirers were enthralled by their private lives as by their stage and screen performances. They received over 1, 000 fan letters a week. Vivien and Larry were two…
This is the first full biography of the fearless life of Maria Yudina, the subversive and a legendary pianist who survived Stalin’s Russia and escaped camps that enveloped so many of her close friends. Maria Yudina was no ordinary musician who lived on the fringers of Soviet society and had close friendships with such towering…
Even amid the cold war and its terrifying moments in the past, there were flashes of humanity and examples of mutual appreciation. In 1964, Marlene Dietrich accompanied by Burt Bacharach and a band of Soviet musicians featured a near-nude beaded dress worn under white fur. Her opening night was given standing ovation by 1, 500…
University of Manchester biochemistry Professor Andrew Doig provides an eye-opening portrait of death throughout history, looking at infectious diseases, genetic disease, violence, and diet, who they affected, and the people who made it possible to overthrow them. We also hear about the long and torturous story of the discovery of vitamin C and its role…
“Londongrad” is a phenomenon brought to the fore by Vladimir Putin’s savage attack on Ukraine, with Britain’s Liz Truss slamming the Oligarchs and their associates on the floor of the House of Commons. The British establishment and its financial system provide for dirty money from the post-Soviet era and elsewhere may be seen as an…
Karen Joy Fowler is a Book-shortlisted, million-copy bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes with an epic novel about the notorious, ill-fated Booth family of Charmers, liars, drinkers, and dreamers, who will change history forever. The story of the brilliant and ill-fated Booth family. Junius is the patriarch, a celebrated Shakespearean actor…
Cormac is a photographer forty and still single, he suddenly finds himself “the leftover man”. Through talent and charm, he has escaped small-town life and a haunted family. But now his peers are all getting divorced, dying, or buying trampolines in the suburbs. Cormac is dating former students, staying out all night, and receiving boilerplate…