The bad old days
The “golden years” of publishing were characterised by booze, bullying and amateurishness
Spare us the wagging finger
Few things are more tedious than books moralising about the deficiencies of yesteryear
Meeting the masses
With scant audiences and paltry remuneration, author’s tours can be far from glamorous
What book blurbs really mean
Publishing professionals often speak in code, but our man on the inside is a cryptographer
Mr (or Mrs) 15 per cent
The best agents are unobtrusive and make sure attention is focused on their writers
Young, gifted — and readerless
Why have we never heard of most of the young writers on the latest “Best of …” list?
Don’t believe the hype
The use of author testimonials to sell books is a performative exercise in gilding the lily
Show me the money
Why do authors so often have such difficulty extracting the fees they are owed?
Bring back plain English
Most literary criticism is don addressing don, in a style designed to exclude ordinary people
The new establishment
Who will subvert today’s anti-establishment?
Still knocking on the door
For all the promises, subpostmasters are still waiting for compensation
Noisy decline
Blaring incongruous sound is as much a sign of urban decay as piles of litter
Farewell to Larry Siedentop
The great political philosopher, Oxford don, and sage defender of Western liberalism
Fear Ireland’s shadow banks
The Emerald Isle is ripe for a volatile market correction
Strictly Come Tory
Who will win the hearts of the nation?
A matter of life and death
It is not the job of judges to tell someone that they are wrong for believing in life
Shiva Naipaul
The younger brother of a controversial Nobel Prize winner who has been unjustly overlooked
Boris: the PM who could do no wrong
This must be in competition for the most inaccurate work of non-fiction since … well, since Johnson’s last book
The death of an Anglo-Hungarian Painting
Nine months after a savage act of vandalism at Trinity College Cambridge, anger is growing at its lacklustre response
Hi-energy nutrients
Schoenfield, Vivier, Bartok &c (Accentus Music)
St. Vincent
The acclaim is excessive but the talent undeniable
