A tale of sportsmanship, chance and obsession, The Penalty Kick by Robert McCrum explores both the addiction of risk, and a doomed father-son relationship that could have been torn from the pages of a late-Victorian novel, inspired by the edgy, ruthless and egalitarian spirit of Northern Ireland.
First published in 1964, Modern Buildings in London is a celebration of the city’s post-war architecture by the famously untrained critic Ian Nairn. Written ‘by a layman for laymen’, Nairn’s take on 260 buildings that were instantly recognisable as ‘modern’ includes descriptions of classic designs such as the Barbican, the former BBC Television Centre, as well as schools, ambulance stations, car parks and even care homes.
Todd McEwen grew up in Southern California. As the son of relatively normal people, he had no in with Hollywood, a mere thirteen miles away, try as he might. This is a kid who loved the movies so much, he got up at 4.30 in the morning to watch Laurel and Hardy. A kid who made his father project 8mm cartoons onto the family’s dining room curtains so they could be slowly parted, just like at a real cinema. A guy who based his philosophy of life on Captain Nemo, and has watched Chinatown over sixty times. So far.
A collection of twelve provocative essays by the philosopher and political thinker Roger Scruton. Each ‘confession’ reveals an aspect of the author’s thinking that his critics would probably have advised him to keep to himself. This diverse collection includes essays on art, music, architecture, government, social media, and culture.
The Holocaust never happened. The planet isn’t warming. Vaccines cause autism. There is no such thing as AIDS. The Earth is flat. Kahn-Harris sets out not just to unpick denialists’ arguments, but to investigate what lies behind them. The conclusions he reaches are disturbing and uncomfortable.
A seasonal anthology of Christmas-themed writings to savour during the highs and lows of Christmas Day, introduced by Gyles Brandreth. This delightful book offers a diverse array of classic and contemporary writers who have expressed their thoughts about Christmas over the centuries – with joy, nostalgia, grumpiness, and dazzling wit.
John Berger, art critic, novelist and long-time smoker, joins forces again with Turkish writer and illustrator Selçuk Demirel. This charming pictorial essay reflects on the cultural implications of smoking, and suggests, through a series of brilliantly inventive illustrations, that society’s attitude to smoke is both paradoxical and intolerant.
We live in a world of docu-drama, in which the ‘real life’ story is held in higher regard than fiction. Where does that leave the imagination? Five writers grapple with reality and fiction, and the alchemical process of turning life into art.
