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Historical fiction depends for its existence upon a pair of bad faiths--a reciprocal pair of bad faiths--the bad faith of the writer and the bad faith of the reader. By [...]

I write songs for singers. Rather, I write lyrics for composers to use for making songs--but, in my head, there is almost always an ideal performance of the lyrics by [...]

Dig If You Will the Picture: Funk, Sex and God in the Music of Prince Ben Greenman Faber [C] Faber, 304 pp. 17.99 [pounds sterling] During his mid-Eighties imperial phase, [...]

A photograph is neither cruel nor tender, it is totally impassive, and photographers expend much energy coping with this fact. Photography could be seen, throughout its history, as attempting to [...]

Borne Jeff VanderMeer Fourth Estate, 325pp. 12.99 [pounds sterling] Jeff VanderMeer recently tweeted: 'The answer to your question on this book tour is 'Because a giant flying elephant shrew would've [...]

Dear darling Bjork, I am so, so sorry. Can you ever find it in your turtle heart to forgive me? What I've done to you, the way I've treated you, [...]

The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the 1970s Peter Doggett The Bodley Head, 432pp,[ponds sterling]20 I can't be the only person who has spent time wondering whether [...]

Submergence J M Ledgard Jonathan Cape, 208pp, [pounds sterling]16.99 'Kismayo, Somalia, 1200 hrs.' To open a spy story with a dateline is a cliche - albeit a very efficient one [...]

Under the Ivy: the Life and Music of Kate Bush Graeme Thomson Omnibus Press, 346pp, [pounds sterling]19.95 A few years ago, I tried to come up with an artistic manifesto. [...]

'Like' is the most ubiquitous word of out time. And, in its comparative form, it is probably the most representative. Teenagers use it to insert facial expressions into sentences, because [...]

Me and rock biopics go back a long way. And, right from the beginning, our history has been chequered. In 1980, I was 12 years old, and stuck inside boarding […]

Imagine a cartoon panel with a door at the end of a corridor in a house. The door is covered in stickers and scrawls. A sign dangles from a nail: [...]

Consumed David Cronenberg Fourth Estate, 288pp, 18.99 £ On the evidence of this superb debut novel and his last two films (the overegged Cosmopolis and the curate's egg that is […]

The Art of Tracey Emin Mandy Merck and Chris Townsend Thames & Hudson, 224pp, £12.95 www.newstatesman.co.uk/bookshop I feel very awkward writing about Tracey Emin, because we used to be lovers. [...]

Copendium: an Expedition into the Rock'n'Roll Underworld Julian Cope Faber & Faber, 736pp, £30 'Babies', 'kiddies', 'chil'en', 'brothers'n'sisters', 'motherfuckers'--Julian Cope's address to his readers throughout Copendium is magnificently direct. He [...]

Parallel Lives: Blondie Dick Porter and Kris Needs Omnibus Press, 304pp, £19.95 It wasn't the way she looked so much as the way she looked--the way her glittery eyes seemed [...]

The Flame Alphabet Ben Marcus Granta Books,304pp, [pounds sterling]16.99 I found Ben Marcus's first book, The Age of Wire and String, in 1995, on a table in Compendium, Camden Town--a [...]

Will Oldham on Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Edited by Alan Licht Faber & Faber, 400pp, £ 15.99 Oh, how I'd love to be able to put my trust in Will Oldham [...]

No Off Switch: an Autobiography Andy Kershaw Serpent's Tai1,432pp, £18.99 'Ali Farka Toure' - if you were a Radio Y listener in the Eighties, a voice will have started up [...]

The Quay Brothers: Into a Metaphysical Playroom Suzanne Buchan University of Minnesota Press, 296pp, £18.50 What is the difference between European dust and American dust? That's the question I'd like [...]

Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music Rob Young Faber & Faber, 688pp, [pounds sterling]17.99 There exists a parallel universe in which I am happily giving Electric Eden an absolute rave. [...]

It took me quite a while before I overcame my aversion to Blackwell's bookshop on Charing Cross Road, after it opened in 1998. One thing most Oxford undergraduates of my [...]

Andrei Tarkovsky is, give or take Billy Wilder and Terrence Malick, my favourite film director. However, when watching his films, I want to get up and walk out of the [...]

An essay is presented on trends in American science fiction movies dealing with police, crime, and justice. The author contrasts the 2014 film "RoboCop" directed by José Padilha with the 1987 film of the same name directed by Paul Verhoeven, and discusses other films in the same genre including "Blade Runner" and "Demolition Man."

The article discusses issues concerning historical fiction. The author stresses that historical fiction depends for its existence upon two bad faiths, the bad faith of the writer and the bad faith of the reader. He profiles writers Jean-Paul Sartre and Philippa Gregory. He presents the terms of the contract-in-bad-faith between the writer and the reader of historical fiction.

The short story "The Ghost" by Toby Litt is presented.

Interviews artist Howard Hodgkin. Reason behind Hodgkin's reluctance to give interviews; Discussion on his painting "The Living Room"; Formal elements of Hodgkin's pictorial language.