Ian Hislop kicked off his new television series, The Age of the Do-Gooders, (the third and final part is on tomorrow night at 10pm, on BBC4 - you can catch up on the iPlayer) by revealing that William Wilberforce was not only an abolitionist but also, by today's standards, something of ... Read More...

Earlier in the week Owen Polley reviewed The Way Back, Peter Weir’s first feature film since 2003’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.   Now as a Portsmouth lad I’m an absolute sucker for all things connected with the Age of Sail, and, for me, Patrick O’Brian’s genre-transcending 'Aubrey-Maturin' ... Read More...

I started reading this book a few months ago, so it’s been sitting on my bedside table for quite a while. Twice a week it gets turned over by my cleaner, who appears not to like the picture on the cover. Living Dolls by Natasha Walter charts the recent revival in ... Read More...

There’s no such thing as an aphrodisiac food. There’s nothing you can grill, fry or roast that will have your dining companion casting aside their cutlery and crawling across the table towards you, growling like a lusty tiger on Viagra. Aphrodisiac foods do not work, apart, of course, from when ... Read More...

On the eighth of March 1941, Virginia Woolf wrote in her journal “I think it is true that one gains a certain hold on sausage and haddock by writing them down.” The neurasthenic novelist’s choice of words suggests that she was not quite sure about this: “I think it is true” ... Read More...

Much praise has been righteously showered on Out Of The Ashes, Tim Albone and Lucy Martens’ film about the Afghan national cricket team, screened as part of BBC Four’s Storyville this week (Catch up with it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ydj1r). All of the big and obvious themes are there, but what makes it ... Read More...

Jonathon Green - visit his website here - is the English language's leading lexicographer of slang. His Green's Dictionary of Slang is quite simply the most comprehensive and authorative work on slang ever published. Today, with Valentine's Day just around the corner, he gives us  Domestic Bliss according to slang... "Advice ... Read More...

There are plenty of English language films about the Holocaust, but very few about the Soviet Gulag.  It might be the obvious angle, but it’s difficult to consider Peter Weir’s new film, The Way Back, in any other light.  The wastes of Siberia now have their very own Hollywood blockbuster. The ... Read More...

Faulks on Fiction (Saturday, 9pm on BBC2 and you can catch up on the iPlayer) kicked off with a look at The Hero. Faulks introduced the programme by telling us he was going to focus on characters rather than the biographical details of authors, which apparently we've been paying far ... Read More...

Yes, a clear cream bun for Worm this week. Well done to everyone else who got elements. Click continue for the full answer... 8885 ... Read More...