Book review: The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow AI No subject has made me go more hot and cold than AI. Some days, I open Gemini, Claude or ChatGPT, set tough tasks and am dumbstruck by the speed and accuracy of the results. Wow, this is the future, I think to myself. On other days, I ask something simple and they get it all [...]
Sherlock Holmes review: The game is afoot in Regent’s Park Life&Style When hailstones were crashing down around Regent’s Park ahead of press night for Sherlock Holmes, it did not take a genius to deduce that we might be in for a rather miserable evening. It is a brave London theatre that relies so heavily upon the weather. But the skies cleared just in time for the [...]
Is the romance boom a recession indicator? From Mills & Boon to BookTok Life&Style From Mills & Boon to BookTok, romance fiction has thrived for more than a century. But what makes it so economically resilient?
Show them the book: why politicians need to read more novels February 26, 2026 Leading historian Dominic Sandbrook has said declining reading habits of our politicians tells you everything you need to know about why they’re so inadequate. William Atkinson couldn’t agree more… Would Keir Starmer be a better Prime Minister if he went to bed with a good Trollope? That was the suggestion of Dominic Sandbrook – Britain’s [...]
I read 100 books in 2 years. Here’s what I learnt. December 24, 2025 As I write this, I am in the final days of the longest reading marathon of my life. In January last year, I set a challenge to read 52 books in as many weeks. Having (just) completed my goal, I set another to read 48 this year, to finish at 100 (journalists like round numbers). [...]
Six of the top business books of 2025 December 15, 2025 Yes, dear reader, it’s that time of year again. What to buy for that special high-flying City exec in your life? I’ve read nearly 50 books this year – most of them new, and most about business. Some were good, others have since found their way to Oxfam. Here are a few of my favourites. [...]
Inside London’s occult bookshops December 9, 2025 As I stood outside Watkins Books, the oldest occult bookshop in London, an old man approached me. “Number 23 is the one you want,” he said, pointing down the street. I looked confused. “Murder! A woman stabbed in the basement!” The man, who quickly walked on, was referring to the 1961 murder of Elsie Batten, [...]
Always Remember: The Boy, The Mole and the Millennial Losers buying this drivel December 6, 2025 Always Remember, the sequel to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, could be this year's Christmas number one. Anna Moloney despairs.
90 years of Penguin Books: The origin myth that may not be true October 28, 2025 The penguin, the myth, the legend. As the publisher celebrates 90 years, Anna Moloney takes a look at the company that revolutionised reading (sort of).
Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, Nosferatu: Why is Gen Z obsessed with Gothic Victorians? October 13, 2025 Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Nosferatu: Victorian Gothic fiction is having a film revival. Anna Moloney asks why.