OLIGARCHY OLIGARCHY by Scarlett Thomas (Canongate £14.99, 224 pp) by Scarlett Thomas (Canongate £14.99, 224 pp) We never see the oligarch in Scarlett Thomas’s latest: he’s a fabulously wealthy, shadowy Russian, possibly criminal, who has sent his adolescent daughter Natasha, the recently discovered product of a long-ago fling, to an all-girls English boarding school, ostensibly … Read more
PICTURE THIS By Gerry Fallon For The Daily Mail Published: 22:11 GMT, 7 November 2019 | Updated: 22:11 GMT, 7 November 2019 Spirit of the Amazon: The Indigenous Tribes of the Xingu by Sue & Patrick Cunningham (Papadakis, £40, 228 pp) Spirit of the Amazon: The Indigenous Tribes of the Xingu by Sue & Patrick … Read more
MUST READS By Jane Shilling for the Daily Mail Published: 22:10 GMT, 7 November 2019 | Updated: 22:10 GMT, 7 November 2019 The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (Harper Collins £8.99, 416 pp) The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (Harper Collins £8.99, 416 pp) A group of old university friends spend New Year in a … Read more
HISTORY COCONUT: HOW THE SHY FRUIT SHAPED OUR WORLD by Robin Laurance (History Press £15.99, 224pp) You’d never have guessed it, but the humble coconut underpins rather a lot of what we laughingly call western civilisation. Without it, millions more soldiers would have died in both world wars. John F Kennedy might never have become … Read more
WHAT BOOK first turned comedian and writer Arthur Smith to reading? Arthur Smith is currently reading Sloot by the Irish writer Ian Macpherson He would take the Complete Works of Shakespeare to a desert island The Man Who Didn’t Wash His Dishes by Phyllis Krasilovsky first got him reading By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 22:00 GMT, … Read more
HMRC pays back £535m wrongly claimed on pension withdrawals as it overtaxed pensioners at record rate Pensioners have been clobbered with a huge bill after being overcharged In the three months to September 30, HMRC had to repay £54m It had applied ’emergency tax’ to pension withdrawals By Ben Wilkinson for the Daily Mail Published: 23:31 … Read more
Tis the season to sort out your closets! Tidying expert Marie Kondo reveals a simple but clever hack for freeing up space while storing your warm weather clothes for the winter Kondo, 35, is an organization and tidying guru who invited herself into the everyone’s homes with her Netflix series Tidying Up With Marie Kondo … Read more
Crackdown on clock-watching private parking firms: Rogue companies could be forced to give a 10-minute grace period to drivers before hitting them with charges of up to £100 Rules demanding a 10-minute grace period to be part of a new Code of Practice This is designed to cut the unscrupulous practices of private parking firms … Read more
Renters renewing tenancies handed rebates thanks to government ban on high deposits… with one totalling £3,385 Cap on tenancy deposits sees an average £320 returned to overpaying renters This follows government legislation which in June banned rip off tenancy fees Deposits are now capped to five weeks’ rent or six weeks’ for rent over £50,000 By … Read more
BARING EMERGING EUROPE: Russia can offer more than just its oil, if this trust is anything to go by By Sally Hamilton, Financial Mail on Sunday Published: 21:48 BST, 2 November 2019 | Updated: 09:59 BST, 4 November 2019 When investors think about money-making opportunities in Russia they usually think about oil and oil alone. … Read more
HISTORY TIME TAMED by Nicholas Foulkes (Simon & Schuster £25, 256 pp) Ruth Belville had the most incredible job — she sold the time. Literally. Three days a week, the ‘Clock Woman of London’ would travel to Greenwich, synchronise her watch with the time given by the Royal Observatory, then visit businesses all over London so that … Read more
WHAT BOOK would children’s and Gothic novelist Michelle Paver take to a desert island? Michelle Paver is currently reading Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting Of Hill House She would take SAS Survival Handbook by John Wiseman to a desert island The novelist revealed My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante left her cold By Daily Mail Reporter … Read more
BIOGRAPHY MRS DELANY: A LIFE by Clarissa Campbell Orr (Yale £30, 448 pp) Nestled in the archives of the British Museum is a series of paper collages by an 18th-century artist. Though few people know her name, Mary Delany’s exquisite creations are some of the most original works in the museum’s collection. Mary Granville was … Read more