No team in sports has inspired better literature than the hapless Chicago Cubs. The oeuvre includes a little-known tale by W.P. Kinsella: ‘The Last Pennant Before Armageddon.’
When biographer Gretchen Gerzina came across an old British newspaper article calling Sarah E. Farro “the first negro novelist,” she wondered: who was Farro, and why had she been lost to history?
It is the ultimate ‘meta-novel’: Andy Martin got his own book out of watching a popular author write his latest tome.
The great detective’s purchase on popular culture was not always so assured.
Benedict Cumberbactch and Martin Freeman in Sherlock, courtesy of Channel Nine
As Benedict Cumberbatch prepares to return to 221B Baker Street for a Sherlock Christmas Special, a great, unsolved mystery remains: what is the source of the detective’s enduring appeal?
Qiu Xiaolong’s nine novels give excellent insights into China from the time of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution to the present.
Reuters/David Gray
Struggling to get a handle on modern-day China and all its complexities? Looking to have fun while doing so? The Detective Chen novels could be just the ticket.
Victor Hugo famously claimed the invention of the printing press destroyed the edifice of the gothic cathedral. Others fear the internet age will eventually destroy the novel. But guess what? It won’t.
James Bond and Pussy Galore: Sean Connery and Honor Blackman film a scene for Goldfinger.
PA Archive
Art school, drama school, film school. Do people have a problem with these? If the arts pages of broadsheet newspapers are routinely filled with articles by celebrated artists, dramatists and film-makers…
After years spent securing funds and permissions, a team of forensic scientists and historians have launched an intensive search for the remains of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. Using the…