In a thinly disguised attempt to prepare the ground ahead of raising the cap on university tuition fees (which seems inevitable no matter whether Labour or the Conservatives win the next general election), the business secretary Peter Mandelson has...

One of the pleasures of university life is the three months in summer when students depart, and rather than having to swim against a tide of preparation and marking, one actually gets to tread water, reflecting on what has gone before, and planning new...

As a young, so-called literary critic, it is nice to know that my literary tastes and acumen are up there with the best. I had just written a review of A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book, when I came across James Wood's essay on it in the London Review...

I went to see The Winter's Tale last weekend, but a strong production (see postscript) could not conceal the cracks in Shakespeare's original, and my prior impression of the play was confirmed: it is something of a mess. The problem begins with...

I have just posted a review of an interesting novel by Karen Joy Fowler, entitled The Case of the Imaginary Detective (also published as Wit's End in the United States). The novel - a sort of detective fiction, but really concerned about authorship and...