Skip to main content

Hello. It looks like you’re using an ad blocker that may prevent our website from working properly. To receive the best experience possible, please make sure any ad blockers are switched off, or add https://experience.tinypass.com to your trusted sites, and refresh the page.

If you have any questions or need help you can email us.

Charlie Connelly

Anna Anderson: The woman who claimed to be the daughter of the last Tsar

Once the toast of New York society, the mystery of why she did what she did remains

Read the full article

I’m a celeb.. get me a book deal

Serge Gainsbourg’s novel was unquestionably a stinker, but a surprising number of novels by famous people stand up to scrutiny

Read the full article

Fred Buscaglione: The Turin boy who was the face of post-war Italy

The singer almost came to embody the nation’s revival before it all ended at the dawn of a decade that could have been made for him

Read the full article

The page against the machine

A Russian author is declared a ‘terrorist’ for opposing Putin. American writers are banned in right-wing states. Where will this end?

Read the full article

Edward G Robinson: The Romanian all-American personification of prohibition

The role of Rico in Little Caesar proved as career-defining for Robinson as Frankenstein’s monster was for Boris Karloff or Dracula for Bela Lugosi

Read the full article

Pierre Boulle, from sabotage to screen

French Resistance spy Boulle took up writing almost on a whim – then created the basis for two all-time classic films

Read the full article

Nora Kovach: The dancer who defected

More famous dancers would follow her lead but Nora Kovach was the first, the pioneer, arguably the bravest of them all

Read the full article

Magic in the margins: what links Marlene Dietrich with Coleridge and Kerouac?

All were fans of writing their own thoughts on the pages of the books they read

Read the full article

Uta Hagen: The best – and most demanding – acting coach in the business

While she became one of the most highly respected names in the history of US theatre, Hagen brought a European sensibility to Broadway

Read the full article

The hippo who went shopping: a vivid portrayal of the refugee experience

A real-life zoo breakout is the first in a series of tumultuous events to befall the refugee hero of Leo Vardiashvili’s impressive debut novel

Read the full article

Mistinguett: The song-and-dance showgirl who owned the Paris stage

So emblematic of the city’s spirit did she become that Mistinguett seemed timeless even in her own lifetime

Read the full article

Welcome to this year’s must-reads

2024 should go down as a vintage year for female authors

Read the full article

Baba Yaga: The fairytale scourge of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

Attempting to steal children’s Christmas gifts from a kindly old man is only one item on the charge sheet of the cannibalistic witch

Read the full article

A year of magnificent exceptions in the world of books

The perfect combination of compelling narrative and wonderful writing is rare but when it works the results are unforgettable

Read the full article

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha: The reformer who never quite understood the nation

His zeal doused by public apathy and establishment ambivalence, Albert became gradually overwhelmed by disillusionment

Read the full article

One ring and the right wing: Giorgia Meloni’s love of Tolkien

What draws Italy’s populist leader, along with a number of other far-right politicians, to the work of JRR Tolkien?

Read the full article

Luigi Pirandello: The relentless seeker for answers to the riddle of existence

The relentlessly prolific author of plays, poems, short stories and novels, Pirandello was always looking ahead

Read the full article

Writing in the present tense: books for under the Christmas tree

Tales of ice and lighthouses, the ghosts of Irish literary legends and the Iliad reborn: the books you should give this Christmas

Read the full article

Stéphane Grappelli: The violinist who changed the face of jazz in Europe

There was no other with his extraordinary improvising in the medium

Read the full article

The clot thickens: Nadine Dorries’ caffeine-fuelled torrent of words

The former Tory culture secretary and Boris Johnson superfan has written an astoundingly bad book

Read the full article

Shakespeare conquered the world elsewhere

The first recorded purchase of Shakespeare’s collected works came 400 years ago – and the compendium soon crossed into Europe

Read the full article

Louis Malle: The French director who was a cinematic maverick

Malle’s unique approach to cinema meant he was always on the hunt for ways to freshen things up, no matter the risk

Read the full article

Anne Michaels and the past that’s closer than we imagine

The Canadian author only writes one book each decade. But her latest novel, Held, shows why it’s worth the wait

Read the full article

Franz Joseph I: The Emperor who ushered in the end of the Habsburg Empire

The blame for the end of a glorious imperial story cannot be laid solely at his feet, but the longer he lived the more anachronistic his rule became

Read the full article

The greatest European autobiography of all?

He wrote three operas with Mozart and ended up working at a grocers in New York City: meet Lorenzo da Ponte

Read the full article

Robert Enke: The goalkeeper taunted by the cruelty of depression

For all the cod philosophy attached to the art, being a goalkeeper did not cause the Germany international to end his life

Read the full article

In cod we trust: why Britain’s national dish is nothing of the sort

The humble Friday night takeaway staple is a magnificent immigration success story

Read the full article

Henri Matisse: The secular artist whose masterpiece was a chapel

Never a religious man, at the end of his life converting a damp garage into a chapel became an unlikely obsession

Read the full article

Italo Calvino: the writer who was one of us

Born a century ago, the Italian author was the best kind of writer, because he understood what it was to be a reader

Read the full article

Viveca Lindfors: The Hollywood outsider with a second act on stage

The Swedish actress’s unhappy Hollywood experience prompted a lifelong questioning of what being herself actually meant

Read the full article

Dario Fo: The jester who spoke hard truths beneath the clowning

Few cultural figures can have combined political activism and theatre as successfully as Fo

Read the full article

How fascism grows: a chilling warning from history

A new translation of a novel on the rise of Nazism holds lessons for our current populist age

Read the full article