Last week I got this email from a friend, "I'm reading Fifty Shades of Grey at the moment... you would love it!" That was it, that was all it said, no hello, no how are you, not even any reasoning behind it. This would be odd enough, but what was...

In 2009 I was asked to be one of the Orange Prize for Fiction judges. I loved it. Although my boyfriend groaned every time I opened another book, I revelled in it. As I charged through the 30 or so books I was sent over in a large...

Last week, there was an academic conference at the University of St Andrews dedicated to the Harry Potter series of books. Over 50 academics gathered to discuss J.K. Rowling's books, and apparently this caused quite a stir among people who think that children's literature is not worthy of study.

In rising middle-class neighbourhoods of London, an author-journalist friend notices a pronounced dwindling of 'creative' types among parents comparing his older son's class to that of his young daughter. Bankers, fund managers and lawyers seem to have crowded out journalists, academics and artists from Clapham to Muswell Hill. Is this...

Magic and animals seem to have been the major themes of my favourite books whilst growing up, and luckily I can find both in Oz! But there was another witch that whet my appetite for magic at an early age, and she is Mildred Hubble, the main character in Jill...

Travelling to Naples I was lucky enough to meet with artist French- Italian artist Paul Thorel. He is having his first solo show in Paris in June and this was a truly unique opportunity to speak to someone who embraced the use of digital manipulation in art way...

Public art is once again in the forefront of people's minds with the upcoming Olympics in London. Outside the stadium in Stratford rises the AncelorMittal Orbit which will be the tallest sculpture and the largest piece of public art in the UK. Standing at 115 meters tall the sculpture by...

I am lucky enough to live in London, where the sheer number of museums, galleries and theatres mean it's almost impossible not to find yourself visiting places from time to time.

This time last year, however, I was managing just that - unconsciously dodging anything that resembled a cultural...

I'm not a geologist, vulcanologist nor even a phenomenologist but I've spent a lot of time in the last few years reading about and watching Vesuvius, mostly online or in the media, and once or twice on the spot, while writing a book on its enduring fascination.

Whether it was...

Saturday 19th May will mark Kew Bridge Steam Museum's first foray into the Museums at Night festival of after-hours events at museums and galleries.

This isn't to say that we haven't had dark and spooky night-time tours before, but there is something different about organising...

Museums at Night is the annual after-hours festival of culture and heritage, which explodes into life each year on the weekend nearest to International Museums Day.

This year it will take place on Friday 18, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 May - and it looks set to be the biggest...

The Islands by Carlos Gamerro is narrated by a Falklands/Malvinas war veteran with a piece of shrapnel fused into his skull. He literally cannot get the war out of his head. Because the war is there all the time in his head Felipe spends a good deal of...

Well, the film of War Horse came and went, much loved by many, less loved by others. I thought it was a wonderful adaptation of the story, as the play is too. The book used to sell only a couple of thousand of copies a year and was translated into...

"That book is amazing! Everyone should to read it," said the woman sitting next to me on the train. Through my shock at someone speaking to me on the packed 7:50am service to Bedford I realised that the words were a carbon copy of my colleague's when she lent me...

The Great Horse Manure crisis of 1894 caused our predecessors to get their knickers in a right twist. Writing in the Times one commentator estimated that "in 50 years every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure". Such gloomy forecasters ignore a fundamental aspect of economics;...

One in the Chamber: I joined with 14 others on New Year's Eve for dinner at Le Jardin, a new restaurant that has opened here, two years in the building, the ambition of a wonderful and fascinating French man called Dan. There were amongst us 10 nationalities, a convention of...