I had more fun with spooks and detectives in the first of Mick Herron’s Slow Horses series and my old friend Raymond Chandler ...

So here, in no particular order, are my ten best reads of the year, with the overall winner at the end. Amor Towles: A ...

Daniel Finkelstein: Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad I am sure you both know that Daniel Finkelstein is a journalist and ...

This year I read 64 books, the first time since records began (2014) that the number has exceeded my age in years (I am 62). The total might be inflated, though, as some of the books have been ...

You could write an entire PhD thesis about how difficult it is for academics to relax on holiday.

‘Mr Blue Sky‘ is a cheerful pop tune by the Electric Light Orchestra. It is entirely unconnected with Bluesky, the social media phenomenon. It’s been around for quite a while, apparently. The social ...

I am Stephen Curry, a Professor of Structural Biology at Imperial College London. Few people know what ‘structural biology’ is but in my case it means I figure out the three-dimensional structures ...

I am Master of Churchill College, Cambridge and a professor emeritus of physics in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge; my research was on soft matter and biological physics. I ...

I was born under a wandering star in a trunk in the Princess Theater in Pocatello, Idaho in the Victoria Maternity Hospital in Barnet, London in 1962. I attended various schools including Whitgift ...

Jasper Fforde: The Eyre Affair This knockabout whimsy was given to me by a colleague, Mr C. S. of Borehamwood, for my entertainment when I was off work with depression over a decade ago. I cannot say ...