Breaking news
BOOK OF THE WEEK WORRIED? by Lise Johnson & Eric Chudler (Norton £16.99, 312 pp) Worried? What a daft question. Of course you’re worried. Are you awake? Are you breathing? Did you leave the bath running? Did you turn the oven off before you went out? Is this aeroplane going to fall out of the … Read more
BIOGRAPHY THE PROFESSOR & THE PARSON by Adam Sisman (Profile £12.99, 240 pp) The Oxford history don Hugh Trevor-Roper is chiefly remembered (poor man) for his one disastrous mistake: his brief authentication of the so-called ‘Hitler diaries’ in 1983. Anyone who enjoyed Adam Sisman’s 2010 biography of Trevor-Roper will be haunted by what must have … Read more
BOOK OF THE WEEK Noble Savages : The Olivier Sisters — Four Lives in Seven Fragments by Sarah Watling (Cape £25, 416 pp) Margery — the mad one. Brynhild — the divorced one who died from cancer on her failing farm. Daphne — the Rudolf Steiner obsessive who founded a school. Noel — the doctor … Read more
NATURE ROCK POOL by Heather Buttivant (September £14.99, 288 pp) Barnacles live their entire lives cemented to a rock — so how do they reproduce? Answer: a barnacle has an enormously long penis. In fact, if we chaps were proportioned like barnacles, we would sport penises some 48 ft in length. Quite a thought. This … Read more
HISTORY Crabbgate by John Bevan (£12.99, submex.co.uk) Navy frogman Commander Lionel ‘Buster’ Crabb pictured in 1944 On the morning of Thursday, April 19, 1956, former Navy frogman Commander Lionel ‘Buster’ Crabb dived into the waters of Portsmouth Harbour. Working for MI6, his mission was to investigate the underwater workings of a Soviet warship which was … Read more
WHAT BOOK would television comedian and journalist Dom Joly, take to a desert island? Dom Joly has recently finished reading Middle England by Jonathan Coe He would take Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad to a desert island He says the adventures of Tintin sparked his interest in reading By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 22:01 BST, 30 … Read more
Please read carefully because any entries that do not meet the rules will be discounted. Full terms and conditions, which you must agree to and be bound by, are available online at dailymail.co.uk/novelcomp 1. Submit your entry consisting of the first 3,000 words of your novel in the English language, plus a synopsis of the … Read more
WHAT BOOK would novelist Louise Candlish, take to a desert island? Louise Candlish is currently reading After The End, by Clare Mackintosh She would take Decline And Fall, by Evelyn Waugh to a desert island She says Enid Blyton’s Adventure series sparked her interest in reading By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 22:02 BST, 23 May 2019 | Updated: 22:13 … Read more
Holidaymakers can now stay in the sweet shop that inspired some of Roald Dahl’s classic books, including The Twits and Matilda, as it’s now listed on Airbnb Mrs Pratchett’s sweet shop in Llandaff, Cardiff, sleeps up to 21 people and can be rented for £450 per night It has recently undergone a renovation by owners … Read more
Iceland was one of the last places on earth to be settled by humans. And as these incredible photographs show, we haven’t done much with the place. And that can only be a good thing because Iceland is one of the most staggeringly extraordinary places on earth. These images are from a new book in … Read more