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With French long engaged in a losing battle against English around the world, a new way of fighting back has been proposed by a multinational group of authors who write in French: uncouple the language from France and turn French literature into “world literature” written in French. For guardians of the language of Molière, Voltaire […]

Thriller writer from a world of sex, violence, Caddys and ‘frails’ In the booming postwar market for paperback detective fiction, the groundbreaking bestseller was Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, but Richard S Prather’s Shell Scott was not far behind. Where Hammer’s appeal lay in a mix of raw sex and violence, Scott’s adventures tended toward the […]

The stylized images of ancient Assyrian kings, with their braided beards and Art Deco muscles, riding out in chariots to hunt lions or men, are now familiar, but until the 19th century nothing was known of them. All evidence had been buried for more than two millenniums under the soil of what is today Iraq. […]

When a bookshop works, there is really nothing quite like it – and Foyles works. As an independent, it cannot compete with the big chains on advertising or discounts. So it has come up with other, more subtle strategies to bring in customers. Its staff, for instance, are passionate and knowledgeable (I know for a […]