My creativity can be traced back to my heritage, to the skin colour that defined how I was perceived. But, like my ancestors, I wouldn’t accept defeatWhen I won the Booker prize in 2019 for my novel Girl, Woman, Other, I became an “overnight success”, …
Adjoa Andoh: ‘My greatest fear? Being locked in a sauna and boiled alive’
Bridgerton’s Lady Danbury on cleaning men’s toilets, worrying about windows and her secret nicknameBorn in Bristol, Adjoa Andoh, 58, appeared in lead roles at the RSC, as well as starring in Doctor Who and Casualty. In 2009, she appeared in Clint Eastw…
Wole Soyinka: ‘This book is my gift to Nigeria’
The Nobel laureate has produced plays, poems, essays and even inspired a pop duo but he hasn’t written a novel for nearly half a century – until nowAt 87, Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian icon. His plays have been performed around the world, his poems anthol…
Dinner Party: A Tragedy by Sarah Gilmartin review – family’s subtle poison
A finely observed Irish debut about a monstrous mother and dysfunctional siblings Kate slips away during a family dinner to throw a perfect baked alaska in the bin. “The freezer door was left open,” she lies to the gathered guests – her brothers Peter …
Armando Iannucci’s epic Covid poem: ‘It’s my emotional response to the past 18 months’
When Covid stalled his film work, the writer took revenge on the virus in the form of a poem about Britain, Brexit and the pandemic – exclusively extracted here Where do you start with the pandemic? It may have been one of the most universally shared m…
Tom Gauld’s idea for an instant bestseller – cartoon
Continue reading…
Streaming: Another Round and the best films about drinking
Thomas Vinterberg’s intoxicating Oscar winner joins booze-fuelled classics such as Whisky Galore!, Sideways and Leaving Las VegasWhen it comes to dealing with drinking on screen, films tend to be in one of two categories: grim-faced portrayals of the p…
The climate crisis has made the idea of a better future impossible to imagine | Ian Jack
Despite all the analogies for this possibly terminal emergency, it is unlike anything that has come beforeWriting in 2003, the American environmentalist Bill McKibben observed that although “some small percentage” of scientists, diplomats and activists…
‘Vigil portrayed us as malevolent robots’ – submariners torpedo the BBC’s nautical hit
Fifteen minutes to launch a nuke? Rampant drugs and hairspray? No beer in the torpedo hatches? As the tense thriller concludes, navy experts scuttle its boatload of mistakesWhat did the BBC did get right in Vigil, its tale of sex, drugs, treason, murde…
My Secret Brexit Diary by Michel Barnier review – a British roasting
The EU’s chief negotiator found his UK counterparts bizarrely unfocused during the long haul to fix a Brexit deal – and believes they still don’t know what they’ve doneRarely do we see thinking of the other side of a negotiation so quickly, while the t…