Copy: The National 02/02/12 >> We’ve all done it. Bought an entrance ticket for a gallery or a museum and politely declined when a well-meaning employee suggests that we purchase the glossy guidebook. But in the case of the Museum Of Islamic Art in Doha, I would definitely...

Copy: Metro 18/01/12 >> Sadly, Metro don’t publish their book reviews online. So here’s my review of ex BBC Sport Editor Mihir Bose’s new book tracking how sport moved from its Corinthian roots to becoming one of the most influential and money-making institutions in the...

Copy: The National 16/01/12 >> It was truly strange to start last week speaking to the author Richard Davenport-Hines about his book published to coincide with the centenary of Titanic’s demise, and end it talking about a ship sinking off the coast of Italy on Gordon Burns’...

Copy: The National 26/12/11 >> I love tall buildings. A few years ago it seemed like every spare plot in central Manchester promised a skyscraper to compete with the peerless Beetham Tower. Buildings like this and this And then the credit crunch hit, and we were left with the slightly...

Copy: The National 15/12/11 >> Lucy Caldwell‘s second book, The Meeting Point, has been one of my favourite finds of this year. And it’s not just me either – last month it beat the likes of Tea Obreht to the Dylan Thomas Prize, the judges calling it ”a...

Copy: The National 05/12/11 >> Julian Barnes may have won the Booker Prize for one of the slightest books in the prize’s history, but a trip to Waterstone’s this Christmas will confirm that the trend in literature is certainly towards doorstopping fiction: books this autumn...

Copy: The National 09/11/11 >> It was fantastic to see Daljit Nagra‘s name among the shortlisted poets for the prestigious TS Eliot prize. He has one of those brilliantly fresh voices which periodically shake up the form – new collection Tippoo Sultan’s Incredible White...

Copy: The National, 26/10/11 >>On Sunday I went to the International Prize For Arabic Fiction event at Manchester Literature Festival. At which I learned that it’s not considered very PC to call it the Arabic Booker, but nevermind. The National did, so I am! Anyway, it was really...