• Poetry needs to get out of the garret

  Henry Wallis has a lot to answer for. On exhibition in 1856, his deliciously necrophilic painting of the 17-year-old poet Thomas Chatterton –lolling in …

• Why fathers and sons make great theatre

  From the medieval Mystery Plays through Hamlet to Christopher Shinn’s excellent Now or Later, now at the Royal Court, fathers and sons give good play. …

• The best seat in the house

  The Dress Circle. To some, those curlicued golden letters on their varnished wooden plaque, nestling above their womblike staircase, mean privilege and unparalleled views: …

• A slow cure for book abuse

  Everyone loves a good read, but when you start believing that Dragon’s Den might just take a chance on your waterproof paperback shower shield, you …

• Criticism’s vocabulary of cruelty

  “I can do ‘funny negative’ rather well”, the biographer and reviewer Jeremy Treglown mused at Pencilfest earlier this month, “but it’s much more difficult to praise …

• Touching books

  A book – as in the thing itself – is not a work of art, but a miracle of design. Which makes the V&A’s new …

• Theatre of the underdog

  Fierce, unkempt little Jack Russells of the world that we are, the Brits love an underdog. We’re fiercely proud of our theatre as an edgy …

• Critics v bloggers

  Writing in the blogosphere can feel like being a settler in a strange new country: still defining its boundaries, we are eager to …

• Don’t read – listen

  Tomorrow morning, I’ll definitely be checking the Amazon bestseller charts for US horror fiction; not because I like horror, but because …

• Theatre loves a love affair

  Affairs are the musky, secretive stuff of playwrights’ dreams. They feature hidden selves, assignations and unmaskings, and few characters are so dramatically compelling …

• Comics’ perfection

  The assumption that comic books are for children, greasy-haired science fiction geeks, or middle-aged Japanese businessmen with a penchant for mildly paedophilic pop-eyed …

• Poetry is more than self help

  Daisy Goodwin is the Gillian McKeith of poetry. Using the same insouciance with which the skinny Scot might recommend some of her own-brand spirulina for …

• Will a premiere ever shock us again?

  Pity the child of the 80s. Causeless rebel of the liberal, wealthy west, I often feel that all the blistering innovations in theatrical form and …

• Where are the great one-woman shows?

  Michael Pennington is one of those actors. Authoritative and genuine, a sympathetic mélange of RSC, ESC and BBC, swirled in creamily rich RP, he is …

• Put a soundtrack to your reading

  Books deserve silence. From the lute playing of Peter Claire in Rose Tremain’s Music and Silence to the lyricism of a single …