My favourite Christmas shopping quote so far this year, overheard in a toy department of a big store – a French woman on her mobile phone, ‘I’ve bought Peppa Pig for Phaedre, so she’s okay … ’ (sounded even better … Continue reading →

I went this morning to see an extraordinary documentary about Henry Darger that was showing at the Gate Cinema in Notting Hill. He lived most of his adult life as a hospital janitor in Chicago. He had spent 7 years of … Continue reading →

The Scotsman has come up trumps, including Amateurs in a Books of the Year roundup by Lesley McDowell who wrote: ‘Literary biographies tend to fare less well in the “shocks” category, perhaps a good thing. Joanne Hodgkin started the year … Continue reading →