Kate Kellaway
The Society of Timid Souls by Polly Morland - review
Polly Morland's study of bravery is executed with energy, curiosity - and courage You might think an inquiry into the nature of courage a trumped-up excuse for a book but Polly Morland loses no time in persuading you otherwise. She approaches her subject
Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley - review
Tessa Hadley's account of the life of an ordinary woman is brilliantly done - even if her heroine never feels like a friend This novel is the life story of an ordinary, middle-aged woman - Stella. Only that she is not ordinary because Tessa Hadley is wri
Drysalter by Michael Symmons Roberts - review
A major new collection of 'super-sonnets' demonstrates the poet's amazing talent for putting intimacy on paper A drysalter was a trader in salts, chemicals and dyes and these poems seem steeped in a single colour: it is clear they all proceed from the sa
Doktor Glas - review
Wyndham's, London It might seem a doomed idea to turn Hjalmar Soderberg's 1905 novel Doktor Glas into a one-man show. It caused a scandal when first published because of its treatment of sex, death and suicide - but it is written in journal form. How t
Smack Family Robinson; Before the Party; A Doll's House - review
Richard Bean's new comedy, Smack Family Robinson, is perfectly tailored for the Rose theatre because it's packed with gags about local geography (everywhere is inferior to Kingston). But the ultimate joke is that the snobs who would like to feel they occu
Smack Family Robinson; Before the Party; A Doll's House - review
Richard Bean's new comedy, Smack Family Robinson, is perfectly tailored for the Rose theatre because it's packed with gags about local geography (everywhere is inferior to Kingston). But the ultimate joke is that the snobs who would like to feel they occu
Smack Family Robinson; Before the Party; A Doll's House - review
Richard Bean's new comedy, Smack Family Robinson, is perfectly tailored for the Rose theatre because it's packed with gags about local geography (everywhere is inferior to Kingston). But the ultimate joke is that the snobs who would like to feel they occu
Hill of Doors by Robin Robertson - review
Autobiography and myth are the themes of this collection, which contains poems as satisfying as novels Robin Robertson's fifth collection has been artfully organised. He has shown in earlier work (for which he has won the Forward prize more than once and
The Winslow Boy - review
The Winslow Boy seems to be a storm in a teacup. Did Ronnie, a 14-year-old cadet, steal a postal order for five shillings, forge a signature and deserve expulsion from naval college? But because this is about justice, it turns out, in Terence Rattigan's