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Earlier this month, thanks to a weird fascination with being outside my comfort zone, I find myself swathed in winter gear (including my husband's Arsenal bobble hat and four pairs [...]

At heart, I am analogue. I know podcasts are the thing, but they must be downloaded by the converted, not listened to by chance. I much preferred the sense of [...]

When I scurry into the appointed room at Kathleen Turner's hotel, she is already there, alone, cigarette elegantly poised in one manicured hand. It is the day after fags have [...]

Juergen Teller is a confident man. An artist with a stellar track record of still photography that encompasses high-end ad campaigns, editorials in all the glossies and exhibitions at Tate [...]

As we walk towards a hotel suite for this interview, Stephen Daldry is taking a call from Elton John. Enthusiastic discussions of forthcoming weddings (Elton's) and box-office business (Billy Elliot's) [...]

PEOPLE IN THE SPOTLIGHT 1 Who in January 2005 insisted Kate Moss had a 'beautiful soul'? a) Piers Morgan b) Pete Doherty c) Robbie Williams 2 What item previously owned [...]

Moscow, autumn 2005. The city is a living homage to the joys of rampant consumerism. Banners for Moschino stretch across seven-lane highways streaming with BMWs. A Bulgari boutique jostles up [...]

Collectors are the often unsung but vital third side of the triangle that is the art world. We all know about artists and galleries, but collectors are a relatively unknown [...]

It's 7.30am on a fresh summer's day, and I find myself gazing at a canvas that appears to show a collection of rose-coloured penises struggling to get out of a [...]

This year has been dominated by two trends in theatreland. The first is showbiz; the West End has been dominated by big, rather old-fashioned musicals with big songs, big sets [...]

So, naked women are fashionable again. A (male) friend of mine who works on lofty documentaries at the BBC and cheerily admits to using pornorgraphy regularly puts it this way. [...]

Bonnie Greer Playwright I would set fire to the statue of Queen Vic outside Buck House. It makes the Mall look like a parade ground somewhere in the Austro-Hungarian empire. [...]

An instruction from a radio chief executive bans a singer from the playlist. The instruction is ripped up on air. The country's most famous DJ is suspended. It sounds like [...]

I must admit to somewhat of an obsession with estate agents. With their walk-in offices on every high street, their pinstriped suits and fleets of cars, not to mention the [...]

Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays Joel Waldfogel Princeton University Press, 186pp, [pounds sterling]6.95 You would have thought that a book entitled Scroogenomics, which has been published [...]

Working on the principle that a good parent should occasionally try doing what their kids are up to, I committed myself to taking the Grade 5 piano exam. If the [...]

Is there anything duller than the modern-day digital camera? They cope with any subject matter from the Alps to an ant. They take all the artful cleverness of great pictures [...]

With remarkable synchronicity, it seems everything in the expense bracket of 'unattainable' has gone on a self-induced purge. We now have cut-price holidays in the Caribbean and half-price champagne; I [...]

On Sunday 13 April, I was standing in a pen with thousands of other people. We were all greased with Vaseline and clad in singlets. A few of us were [...]

What's necessary in a Christmas show? Entertainment, naturally. A feel-good message, perhaps, and something visually arresting to gawp at. Children's theatre is particularly strong this Christmas, but then it should […]

Some Kind of Bliss Trafalgar Studios, London SW1 Perhaps as a reaction against his acclaimed version of Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother, for which the stage was crammed with […]

Desperately Seeking Susan Novello Theatre, London WC2 Why is it that whenever someone has a successful, but obviously irreproducible idea, everyone rushes to imitate it? Mamma Mia! is a blissful […]

Henry V CourtyardTheatre, Stratford Since London theatres are currently full of somewhat youthful audiences, it was almost with a sense of nostalgia that I saw those attending Henry Vat Stratford-upon-Avon's […]

The Investigation Young Vic, London SE1 Simplicity, and a growing sense of horror, are the two key notions arising from an utterly compelling production of Peter Weiss's The Investigation, by […]

Five Tanks Hackney Empire, London E8 Power play and the time-wasting antics of a reluctant workforce come under the spotlight in Five Tanks, a new play by Lab Ky Mo […]

Alex Arts Theatre, London WC2 Can you really put a comic strip on the stage? Many people have tried, and here at the tiny Arts Theatre Robert Bathurst, last seen […]

The Country Wife Theatre Royal Haymarket, London SW1 Just before The Country Wife (written in 1675 by the Restoration wit William Wycherley) kicks off, the entire stage is veiled by […]

The Masque of the Red Death Battersea Arts Centre, London SW11 For those of you who don't already know the short, sinister stories of Edgar Allan Poe, ten of which […]

Macbeth Gielgud Theatre, London W1 Machine-gun fire rakes the stage at the Gielgud, which is dressed bleakly in white tiles and harshly illuminated with industrial lighting. A latecomer, on the […]

Fragments Young Vic, London SE1 Fragments is appropriately named. What's on offer is a bit of Samuel Beckett, a smidgen of the director Peter Brook and a flash of great […]

Awake and Sing! Almeida Theatre, London N1 I suppose Islington is as good a place for it as any, but Michael Attenborough at the Almeida seems determined to reawaken an […]

All About My Mother Old Vic, London SE1 Transforming Pedro Almodovar's Oscar-winning 1999 film All About My Mother into a stage production at the Old Vic is a hugely ambitious […]

The Emperor Jones Olivier Theatre, London SE1 Eugene O'Neill's startling play, about an American convict who becomes the ruler of a Caribbean island, is just 70 minutes long, but it […]

Holding Fire! Shakespeare's Globe, London SE1 The year is 1837 and Chartism, a new political movement demanding votes for all men, regardless of wealth, is causing unrest across Britain. Nothing […]

How the Other Half Loves Theatre Royal Bath From the moment that Marsha Fitzalan, playing the adulterous suburban housewife Fiona Foster, flits across the stage in a pair of fluffy […]

Carmen Jones Royal Festival Hall, London SE1 There are some shows where the central performer is so mesmerising, so hypnotically arresting that, for once, the weary description 'star' is rightfully [...]

The Enchantment Cottesloe Theatre, London SE1 To watch The Enchantment, by the little-known, 19th-century Swedish writer Victoria Benedictsson (in a version by Clare Bayley), is rather like experiencing a pendant […]

The Agent Trafalgar Studios, London SW1 Martin Wagner is a man who has clearly got a big bee in his bonnet about not being taken seriously by the literary establishment. […]

The Geatre of the World Arcola, London E8 For once, the Arcola Theatre has served up a dud. Its production of The Great Theatre of the World looked rather promising. […]

Saint Joan Olivier Theatre, London SE1 Joan of Arc, as every schoolchild knows, was burned at the stake. And there is a pile of wooden chairs on stage at the […]

American Nights King's Head Theatre, London N1 A manic-looking masked woman in a robot suit; the booming, godlike voice of Richard E Grant; a hapless young man who is forced […]

The Last Confession Theatre Royal Haymarket, London WC2 As if it were a rebuke to all the West End's summer silliness--orcs, nuns, Elaine Paige aboard a chaise longue--Roger Crane's severe […]

Lord of the Rings Theatre Royal, London WC2 Show me the money. This, I'm afraid, is what will be in people's minds if they venture to see Lord of the […]

Gaslight Old Vic, London SE1 After a somewhat baffling and sometimes disastrous run of plays, the Old Vic has cut its audiences a bit of slack with its latest show, […]

Betrayal Donmar Warehouse, London WC2 Just over ten years ago, it emerged that Harold Pinter and Joan Bakewell had had a seven-year affair that began in the 1960s, she while […]

Fiddler on the Roof Savoy Theatre, London WC2 Henry Goodman's trawl through all the great Jewish roles that have ever been created for the western stage continues with his twinkly, […]

Othello Shakespeare's Globe, London SE1 Othello was my A-level set text. It was Mr Millard's O-level set text. Watching it at the Globe was a disconcerting experience for both of […]

Big White Fog Almeida Theatre, London N1 Big White Fog has never before been performed in Europe, but is something of a landmark play in America. Written in 1937 by […]

A Matter of Life and Death Olivier Theatre, London SE1 In an attempt to adapt one of the most hallowed treasures of British cinema, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's A […]

Absolute Beginners Lyric Hammersmith, London W6 Liam Steel's stage version of the Colin Maclnnes cult novel Absolute Beginners starts confidently. A flashgun illuminates a set of tableaux showing that we […]