5 h. ago I Love You, Byeee by Adam Buxton review – a book that is by turns stupid, zany, and surprisingly charming

I was all set to hate Buxton’s brand of self-deprecating chumminess, but his memoir somehow wins you overOne day Adam Buxton ordered two teas with oat milk from the trolley on the train. Unfortunately his came with cow’s milk and, because his need for vegan alternatives is apparently greater than his wife Sarah’s, he asked her to swap. Before Sarah had the chance to reply, the woman serving their drinks intervened, observing sensibly: “She might not want that one.” Buxton retorted with exaggerated gruffness: “She’s my wife, so she’ll have what she’s given!”The comedian, radio and TV presenter recalls what happened next. Passengers shook their heads and looked at Sarah with pity and concern. Sarah sank mortified into her seat. The incident, Buxton writes, made him look “even more like the kind of controlling monster I had just parodied. But maybe,” he reflects, “a husband who makes a joke that lands so badly and embarrasses his wife as I just had is a kind of mons...

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5 d. ago Dianaworld review: For Diana fans to enjoy — but not to trust

Generally when I’m reviewing a book on a subject I’ve written about, I turn to the index as soon as I’m bored to see if I’m quoted, so I can skip to the scintillating bits. No need to, here; I rock up in the very first paragraph of the introduction: “Of the various titles that Diana Spencer collected during her life, it is the unofficial one of ‘the People’s Princess’ that has most come to encapsulate her reputation. The origins of the term are contested. Many have claimed that Tony Blair’s spin doctor, the shrewd, calculating Alastair Campbell, invented it. Others have said it derived from Anthony Holden, a royal biographer and translator of ancient Greek poetry and Italian opera. Julie Burchill, a republican iconoclast perhaps best known for her writing about pop music, asserts that it was in fact she who bestowed the title upon Diana in a laudatory article about the princess published in 1992.”

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6 d. ago Ocean review: At 99, David Attenborough still wants to change the world

It’s a heartbreaking irony – one not lost on Sir David Attenborough – that in his long lifetime scientists’ knowledge of the natural world has increased dramatically while nature has suffered devastating losses over the same period. Meanwhile, our appetite for David’s powerful storytelling is as insatiable as ever and his new film and book make a formidable case for change.

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1 week ago Notes to John by Joan Didion: Dispatches from the therapist’s chair are a guilty pleasure

Joan Didion, who died in 2021, never intended Notes to John to be published. They are, as the title intimates, notes to her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and they are about meetings with her psychiatrist, Dr Roger MacKinnon, over the course of a little more than a year, beginning in 1999. These 150 pages of notes were in her archive and, given that there wasn’t going to be any more Didion fiction or journalism, someone must have thought that this was a way to continue her story.

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1 week ago Fulvia by Jane Draycott: The woman who outwitted Cicero and then spat on his corpse

In her new book, Jane Draycott tells how through her intelligence, political maneuvering and self-assurance, Fulvia took Rome by storm.

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1 week ago The Sleep Room by Jon Stock: The top actress who was sedated and given electric shock treatment to cure anorexia

New book details how Celia Imrie was sent to a controversial Sleep Clinic where the therapy she and other vulnerable young women were given scarred them for life.

Events

1 week ago Is a River Alive? by Robert Mcfarlane: a beautiful overture for our dying rivers

There’s been a lot of noise about the state of our rivers these past few years, and quite right too. An Environment Agency report in 2020 revealed that not a single river, lake or stream in England was classified as in “good health” and during last year’s general election campaign, politicians felt the need to compete over what their parties would do to end the scandal of raw sewage entering the water system. There’s no doubt that, for a large section of the public, the issue has touched a nerve.

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1 week ago My Next Breath by Jeremy Renner: I died ... and now I know death is nothing to fear

In his new book actor Jeremy Renner details his fight to survive after being crushed by a 7-ton snow plough, what happens when we die - and why we are here.

Events

1 week ago The Fall of the House of Montagu by Robert Wainwright: 'I've been so broke I have only just been able to pay for my valet's meals.'

Robert Wainwright's comical and fascinating new book traces the decline and fall of the Duke's of Manchester.

Politics

2 w. ago The Names by Florence Knapp review – What's in a name? Rather a lot in this intriguing debut novel

Do we choose our children’s fate when we name them? Three names, three fates.

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2 w. ago Parallel Lines by Edward St Aubyn review: An elegant skewering of the beautiful and the damned

Death, psychosis, apocalypse — it’s a strong mixture for a novel. In the hands of a writer less capable than Edward St Aubyn, it would probably add up to a fatal dose for a book that you were actually hoping to read and enjoy.

Events

2 w. ago Gorillas in Our Midst by Alan Toyne: So cute! Until a baby gorilla becomes a toddler, that is .

When, as former zookeeper Alan Toyne learned the hard way, they start ripping things apart (including you). His new book tells what life is like raising gorillas.

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2 w. ago 'In 20 years of reviewing, I'm not sure I've read a funnier book, or one I've enjoyed more': The best Literary Fiction out now

Anthony Cummins reviews the best Literary Fiction out now.

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2 w. ago 'Fabulously stylish and funny': The Popular fiction you should read now

Wendy Holden reviews the best Popular fiction out now.

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3 w. ago Murder on Line One review: Another British broadcaster hops on the whodunnit bandwagon

For many, the words “the first in a new murder mystery series from Jeremy Vine” will feel more like a threat than a promise. Ever since Richard Osman’s monster hit The Thursday Murder Club five years ago, there has been a barrage of crime novels written by British broadcasters — Robert Peston (ITV), Richard Madeley (ITV), Stig Abell (Times Radio), Richard Coles (Radio 4), to name but a few. Yet Vine (Radio 2, Channel 5) can be forgiven for jumping on the bandwagon. In a niche but growing sub-genre, his small-town whodunnit, Murder on Line One, is one of the better offerings.

Events

3 w. ago The Folklore of Birds by Alison Davies: Which bird was instrumental in the death of Christ

Alison Davies takes us through the joys of bird life and their history in this fascinating new book that celebrates our feathered friends.

Events

3 w. ago The Literary Fiction to take into the Easter weekend: Parallel Lines by Edward St Aubyn, Small Boat by Vincent Delacroix, Back in the Day by Oliver Lovrenski

Claire Allfree reviews the Literary Fiction out now.

Events

3 w. ago Allies At War by Tim Bouverie: A history lesson for Donald Trump

A brilliant account of double-dealing between the Allies in WWII shows the mistake Roosevelt made - with the result that the Russians came out on top...

Politics

4 w. ago Melinda French Gates has led an extraordinary life. This self

Bill Gates’ ex-wife might have taken the high road, but she’s mistaken what readers really want: gossip

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