How facts spoil history books
Generation X is 50? Whatever | Darragh McManus
Dracula is the only vampire with real bite
When book recommendations go wrong
Real-life tragedies for real-life cash | Darragh McManus
Baby, it’s a classic | Darragh McManus
Dorian Gray’s true picture of Oscar Wilde
It is unique in the author's work for its direct sincerity, offering a uniquely authentic portrait of Wilde himself
Though a product of the Victorian age, Oscar Wilde and his works always seemed thoroughly modern. I don't only mean that readers today easily relate to Wildean concepts; the universal...
Let’s construct an exquisite corpse
One of the surrealists' more enduring conceits, this strange bricolage of the collective unconscious is also perfect for blog-based collaboration. Lend us a hand!
Exquisite corpse writing was a variation on the old parlour game Consequences, developed by the surrealists in the early 20th century, in which a...
Bedside reading: the naked truth
Celebrity readers always claim to enjoy only the highbrow, but real life bedroom tastes are a little more cosmopolitan. So no fibbing, what's on your bedside table?
Pardon my familiarity, dear reader, but may I ask: what's by your bedside? I'm not talking about the glass of water, lamp,...
How not to title a novel
Marketing departments seem to have homogenised the business of giving a book a name. It's enough to give books a bad name
Apparently book titles can't be copyrighted – I was going to call my first tome Confessions of an English Opium Eater, before my advisers counselled against it...
World exclusive! Finnegans Wake nonsense!
Stop worrying if you find this legendary modernist masterpiece unreadable – I can sensationally reveal that the author couldn't make much sense of it either
People often wonder, rather unfairly, what exactly academics do with their time; what purpose they serve for culture and society. And now we know:...
A Halloween reading list