Gay superheroes soar into comic book battle
Marvel plans same-sex marriage while DC comics says established character is to come outComic book crime-fighters the X-Men are taking a break from saving the day in order to attend the first same-sex marriage in the superhero world, set for June.Publi...
Orange to withdraw sponsorship of women’s prize for fiction
Mobile services company will not be renewing its sponsorship of the book awards that have borne its name for 17 yearsIn one of the biggest upsets in literary prize history, the mobile services company Orange has announced this morning that it will not ...
The Hairy Ape – review
Southwark Playhouse, LondonHell on earth is currently to be found in Southwark Playhouse, where director Kate Budgen makes her mark with a feverish and visually arresting revival of Eugene O'Neill's grimy 1922 expressionistic drama.A classic story of a...
Shorter cuts: news doesn’t get any smaller
The rise of hay-smoking, good news for older mums and the coming of a gay superheroHay smokedSeeing this a lot on menus. As in: "hay-smoked butter", "hay-smoked salmon". Don't understand how it works, but it tastes good.Good news for older mums!It's n...
Shorter cuts: news doesn’t get any smaller
The rise of hay-smoking, good news for older mums and the coming of a gay superheroHay smokedSeeing this a lot on menus. As in: "hay-smoked butter", "hay-smoked salmon". Don't understand how it works, but it tastes good.Good news for older mums!It's n...
Has the diamond jubilee increased the number of ‘royal’ books?
'Books like these are a very useful way to convey something of the optimism of the moment as well as picking out snippets of information about events'Has the Queen's diamond jubilee increased the number of books indulging fantasies about being royal or...
Poem of the week: City Boy by Peter Daniels
A young financier taking a drunken tumble might have been an easy target, but this gentle poem has no interest in blame gamesThis week's poem, City Boy, is by Peter Daniels and appears in his recently published first collection, Counting Eggs (Mulfran ...
Which superhero is about to come out as gay?
A DC Comics insider says an established character will be revealed as gay. Who could it be?The smart money is on Batman or Aquaman or Wonder Woman but, frankly, a case could be made for all or any of them: who is the comic book superhero who has been s...
Paperback Q&A: Ian Rankin on The Impossible Dead
The crime writer reveals the research underpinning his second Malcolm Fox novel – and the strict plan that yields a book a yearHow did you come to write The Impossible Dead?I was reading a newspaper and saw mention of a lawyer called William McRae. H...
So Alain de Botton thinks we need a new kind of porn. Well I’ve got a few ideas for him | Hadley Freeman