Nine million spent Christmas in ‘Dickensian’ housing conditions, survey finds Millions of adults with serious health conditions are spending Christmas in cold damp homes, according to research The Independent UK · Dec 29, 2022
Staying currant: Have Gen Z killed off the Christmas pudding? Top chefs blame ‘whatever we want, whenever we want it’ culture for undermining a centuries’ old festive tradition, writes Hannah Twiggs The Independent UK · Dec 25, 2022
Dis Life: 'Disabled people can't afford Christmas as UK returns to Dickensian squalor' With half of us in debt and a third skipping meals, disabled people are now back to the days of Dickens and Mr Scrooge, writes Anna Morell from Disability Rights UK Daily Mirror · Dec 22, 2022
A Christmas Carol at Middle Temple Hall review: resistance is useless The oak-paneled, stained glass, 14th century Middle Temple Hall feels Dickens-ier than Dickens Evening Standard · Dec 22, 2022
Christmas Carole on Sky review: this contemporary retread lacks spirit The latest adaptation of Dickens’ acclaimed novel fails to capture the magic of Scrooge’s redemption story Evening Standard · Dec 20, 2022
Five historical hot cocktails that are perfect for cold weather It is cold outside and there’s nothing quite like a hot drink to warm the cockles. In the history of British mixed concoctions, there are arguably more hot drinks than cold for one simple reason: central heating was not ubiquitous in the UK until the late 20th century. Before that,… The Conversation · Dec 14, 2022
Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol review: Tennessee-based Dickens retelling is heavy on the cheese Classic Christmas tale is given the Parton treatment, in a saccharine musical with flashes of fun The Independent UK · Dec 14, 2022
Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol review: carried with glee and gusto Dolly’s new songs are good and sometimes excellent in this imperfect tryout Evening Standard · Dec 14, 2022
Staying currant: Have Gen Z killed off the Christmas pudding? Top chefs blame ‘whatever we want, whenever we want it’ culture for undermining a centuries’ old festive tradition, writes Hannah Twiggs The Independent UK · Dec 10, 2022
Ted Lasso star Nick Mohammed returns as Mr Swallow – and he’s not just for Christmas Once an under-the-radar live comedy jewel, Mohammed’s alter-ego impresario is hogging the spotlight in two new stage shows. Is the character destined for TV? The Guardian - UK · Dec 9, 2022
Stick a fork in it: Have Gen Z killed off the Christmas pudding? Top chefs blame ‘whatever we want, whenever we want it’ culture for undermining a centuries’ old festive tradition, writes Hannah Twiggs The Independent UK · Dec 6, 2022
Fanny and Alexander review – Ingmar Bergman’s dark fusion of Shakespeare and Dickens In a three-hour, 40th anniversary rerelease, this Swedish family saga unfolds with emotional power, wonder and brilliant acting The Guardian - UK · Dec 1, 2022
A Sherlock Carol review – the detective takes on Dickens in a fresh festive mashup There’s only one sleuth in Victorian London who can get to the bottom of the suspicious death of Ebenezer Scrooge, in this winning crossover mystery The Guardian - UK · Nov 25, 2022
Armando Iannucci: ‘I have ADHD, which explains why I can only work to deadlines’ The satirist on who makes him laugh, Tory attacks on the BBC, and the physics behind his sci-fi sitcom The Guardian - UK · Nov 20, 2022
The Guardian - UK · Nov 15, 2022 ‘Completely chancy’: the first BBC radio broadcast outside London, 100 years ago Percy Edgar’s story ‘shows just how important local broadcasting was in the early years of the BBC’, says grandson David, a playwright
The Guardian - UK · Nov 10, 2022 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver review – Dickens updated This powerful reimagining of David Copperfield follows one boy’s struggle to survive amid America’s opioid crisis
The Guardian - UK · Nov 8, 2022 A Christmas Carol review – Adrian Edmondson stars in a biting tale for our times David Edgar’s sharp script feels close to home in this exuberant, illusion-filled version of Dickens’ seasonal but socially conscious story
The Independent UK · Nov 3, 2022 Organisation which records thoughts of British public receives blue plaque Mass Observation project was started to capture the public’s real opinion as opposed to the perception of it as presented in newspapers.
The Conversation · Oct 28, 2022 Hypocrisy is beneath them – political figures in the Trump era don't bother concealing their misdeeds There seems to be no sense of shame or its cousin, guilt, in our time.
Los Angeles Times · Oct 25, 2022 Commentary: Clinging to old classics can go hand in hand with banning books Too often, we forget that fights about what we shouldn’t read are also battles over what we should read. And that every time someone attempts to ban Toni Morrison or Ta-Nehisi Coates, they’re also trying to corral our kids back to Hawthorne and Hemingway, Dante and Dickens.
The Guardian - UK · Oct 21, 2022 Barbara Kingsolver: ‘Middlemarch is about everything, for every person, at every age’ The novelist on taking lessons from Doris Lessing, being inspired by John Steinbeck and why she can no longer read JD Salinger
The Guardian - UK · Oct 19, 2022 The Last Chairlift by John Irving review – an outlandish family epic Unconventional characters, uncertain paternity issues: Irving’s 15th novel retreads familiar ground, but is overlong and poorly edited
Evening Standard · Sep 8, 2022 Cutting school trips would have been disastrous for kids like me What I remember most vividly from school are not the lessons in the classroom — reading Dickens, studying trigonometry, internalising French grammar. What I remember from Thomas Tallis in Kidbrooke are the school trips, after school clubs, preschool activities in the cafeteria where I chatted amiably with all the other…
Evening Standard · Jul 6, 2022 Fran Lebowitz at Theatre Royal Drury Lane review: Excoriating opinions and witty retorts While not a stand-up, the wordsmith has the natural cadences of a classic acerbic New York comic
The Guardian - UK · Jun 5, 2022 Bleak Expectations review – Radio 4’s Dickens parody bursts on to the stage This fast-paced comedy mashup of the great Victorian novelist sends up Britishness with oodles of silliness