The self-described ‘Big Mouth’ brought a rock’n’roll ethos to the manufactured Girls AloudFor the release of Girls Aloud’s signature 2004 single Love Machine, the girlband juggernaut’s long-term graphic designers Form created a fictional magazine cover…
‘Unreal’: Samaritans volunteer has life turned around by six-figure book deal
James Norbury’s self-published Big Panda and Tiny Dragon inspired by the lives of callers to helplineA man living below the poverty line, helping others as a volunteer with the Samaritans, who self-published a book after literary agents showed no inter…
Life being put on hold was just the spur this writer needed to fulfil her youthful ambition
Charlotte Northedge wrote a new novel in lockdown. She considers others who have realised the dreams of their youthI wrote a novel in the last lockdown. To be clear, it wasn’t one of those creative outpourings some people had in between yoga with Adrie…
Roxanne de Bastion: You & Me, We Are the Same review – risk meets reward
(Nomad Songs)The rising singer-songwriter’s ambitious second outing fuses psych, new wave and pure vocals, with a little help from Bernard ButlerBrought up between Berlin and the West Midlands, based in London, Roxanne de Bastion is a singer-songwriter…
Mrs March by Virginia Feito review – super woman’s world unravels
An author’s wife sinks into paranoid fantasy after a social slight in an accomplished comedy-horror too arch for its own goodIf you were to generalise about psychological thrillers – a genre label now applied to pretty much any novel in which someone h…
Two pints of lager and a view of St Paul’s: the secret life of London’s most thrilling boozers
What makes a pub special? From the perfect place to flog atomic secrets to the official strictly protected viewpoint for St Paul’s, a new book tells the amazing stories behind the city’s greatest barsWhen you stumble out of the medieval warren of Ye Ol…
Channel 4 opens new HQ in Leeds as it fights against privatisation
Bosses hope move away from London will soften government attempts to sell off broadcasterChannel 4 will open its national headquarters in Leeds on Monday as it fights against a government threatening to sell it off to the highest bidder.About 200 of th…
Idles review – primal howls and bullish power for the pits
Clifton Downs, BristolJoe Talbot dominated the Bristol band’s post-lockdown homecoming with spring-loaded unpredictabilityIt’s an eternal question: is it a faux pas to wear a band’s T-shirt to one of their shows? The implied answer from thousands of Id…
Sarah Harding, singer with Girls Aloud, dies aged 39 from breast cancer
Fans and figures from show business pay tribute to pop star who was diagnosed in August 2020 and wrote memoir during her illnessThe pop singer and TV personality Sarah Harding, who had 21 UK Top 10 singles as a member of Girls Aloud, has died aged 39 f…
Hilary Mantel contrasts Dominic Cummings with Thomas Cromwell
Author adds Cromwell wouldn’t have gone on holiday during a crisis, in apparent shot at Dominic RaabDame Hilary Mantel has said Dominic Cummings “created a picture of himself as an outsider” that was intrinsic to his rise, while Thomas Cromwell had bee…