fri 05/09/2025

book reviews and features

Ben Okri, Brighton Festival 2019 review - adventures in writing

Katie Colombus

If there’s one thing to learn from Ben Okri in this evening of conversation at Brighton Festival...

Read more...

Leah Hazard: Hard Pushed review - a midwife's tales

Marina Vaizey

This layered medical memoir by practicing midwife Leah Hazard unpacks riveting tales of all kinds of deliveries and is...

Read more...

Clare Carlisle: Philosopher of the Heart review – how to be human

Boyd Tonkin

How close should a biographer come to her subject? Clare Carlisle stays by the side, and looks through the eyes, of Søren Kierkegaard at almost every step on his maverick journey. Philosopher...

Read more...

Banine: Days in the Caucasus review - revolutions, pogroms and love

Katherine Waters

By fifteen Ummulbanu Asadullayeva — or Banine, to call her by the name under which she wrote and translated — had already lived more than most of us will in a lifetime. She’d experienced great...

Read more...

Frans de Waal: Mama's Last Hug review - animal feelings

Marina Vaizey

Primatologist, ethologist, zoologist, biologist, social psychologist, behaviourist – how may ‘ists’ can one person have? Dutch-American...

Read more...

My Enemy's Cherry Tree: Wang Ting-Kuo review - a masterpiece from Taiwan

Katherine Waters

Early every evening, Miss Baixiu comes to sit in an isolated café. She is the daughter of Luo Yiming, the respected employee of a successful commercial bank in charge of loans throughout central...

Read more...

Ali Smith: Spring review – green shoots, dark fears

Boyd Tonkin

Stopped in the street for a vox pop by a BBC interviewer keen to “fill your air” with strife and bile, a character in Spring retorts that “there’s a world out there bigger than Brexit,...

Read more...

Karl Ove Knausgaard: So Much Longing in So Little Space review – smiles more than screams

Boyd Tonkin

Around the works canteen, a dozen huge wall-paintings depict, in bright cheerful colours spread across radically stylised forms, happy scenes of women and men at work and play beside a sunlit sea...

Read more...

David Hepworth: A Fabulous Creation review - how vinyl soothed our souls and defined our being

Liz Thomson

Record Store Day is now a fixture on the calendar, a key element in “the vinyl revival”, and this year – 13 April –...

Read more...

Fiona MacCarthy: Walter Gropius review - a master of modernism

Marina Vaizey

The centenary of the founding of the Bauhaus (literally, “Building House”) art school is on us, prompting publications and exhibitions worldwide. Subtitled “Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus”,...

Read more...

Pages

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £49,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

 

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Deaf Republic, Royal Court review - beautiful images, shame...

The Ukraine war is not the only place of horror in the world, but it does present a challenge to theatre makers who want to respond to events that...

Album: Josh Ritter - I Believe in You, My Honeydew

Americana rocker Josh Ritter can write a beautiful song....

Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares, Underbelly Boulevard Soho revie...

Laura Benanti has been enchanting Broadway audiences for several decades now, and London has this week been let in on the secret that recently...

Waley-Cohen, Manchester Camerata, Pether, Whitworth Art Gall...

Manchester Camerata is enhancing its reputation for pioneering with three performances featuring Nick Martin’s new Violin Concerto, which it has...

The Courageous review - Ophélia Kolb excels as a single moth...

“I never abandoned you,” says Jule (Ophélia Kolb; Call My Agent!) to her 10-year-old daughter Claire (Jasmine Kalisz Saurer), setting a...

Album: David Byrne - Who is the Sky?

From his early days with Talking Heads, David Byrne has ploughed a highly individual furrow, and exploited a persona that combines naivety with...

The Paper, Sky Max review - a spinoff of the US Office worth...

Fans of the US version of The Office may wonder what happened to the assorted oddballs of Dunder Mifflin, proud creators of...

Edinburgh Psych Fest 2025 review - eclectic and experimental

Now in its third year, Edinburgh Psych Fest returned to multiple venues in the old town and the city’s southside for 2025; namely Summerhall,...

The Pitchfork Disney, King's Head Theatre review - blaz...

Ever wondered if there was one moment when in-yer-face theatre started? Well, yes there was; there was one play that kicked off that whole 1990s...

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters