Books

He affects to tell the story of a varsity man who was sent down, but the story is, as it is intended to be, so very silly that he has had merely to interest himself in its superficial presentation, and he manages this so extremely well that one is occasionally reminded of P. G. Wodehouse, though it must be added that Mr. Wodehouse has a far greater knowledge of human nature than appears to reside at present in Mr. Waugh's consciousness. But anyway "Decline and Fall" is a great lark; its author has an agreeable sense of comedy and characterisation, and the gift of writing smart and telling conversation, while his drawings are quite in tune with the spirit of the tale. … [Read more...] about Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh

This Mournable Body is a sublime reckoning with the young, sparkling Tambu of Nervous Conditions by her wry, adult self, and by a young postcolonial nation with the betrayal of its convictions. Betrayal acts in the novel as a revolving prism. It is through distancing herself into the second person that Tambu allows her language to betray her, in this way letting us, and herself, into those places that are tender to touch. Three decades on, Dangarembga has written another classic. … [Read more...] about This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga review – a sublime sequel

Martin Lewis has also explained whether it is best to pay in local currency or pounds when abroad, with the former often being the best deal. … [Read more...] about Martin Lewis’ tips on slashing the cost of your summer holidays this year including booking for late August

On the Plaza de Misa, the facade of the pension where Picasso and Olivier stayed was unchanged. The story goes that the deeply traditional villagers were so outraged by the idea of an unmarried couple openly sharing a room that they began throwing stones at their window. Picasso apparently responded by storming onto the balcony and firing a pistol into the air. There’s also a mirador (viewing point) on the edge of the village that provided me a head-on view of the Santa Bárbara mountain, recognisable from Picasso’s paintings, despite his cubist deconstruction. … [Read more...] about Picasso’s lost paradise: how a corner of Catalonia brought inspiration

Jack Clayton's The Innocents (1961), now on national rerelease, is an elegant, sinister and scalp-prickling ghost story – as scary in its way as Rosemary's Baby or The Exorcist. It has to be the most sure-footed screen adaptation of Henry James, taken from his 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw, clarifying some of the original's ambiguities and obscurities, but without damaging the story's subtlety. Deborah Kerr plays Miss Giddens, a governess hired to look after two children in a country estate: Flora (Pamela Franklin) and Miles (Martin Stephens). Miss Giddens finds something she describes as "secret, whispery, and indecent": the house is haunted by the souls of Peter Quint, a drunken, disreputable valet, and Miss Jessel, the former governess whom he seduced. Without admitting it, the children can see the ghosts as well; the spectres have become their secret, parasitical friends. Flora's pertly knowing innocence and Miles's insolent adult hauteur show how the children … [Read more...] about The Innocents – review