Books

Robert Louis Stevenson might be known for his gripping tales of adventure, but CHARLIE CONNELLY finds comfort in the gently flowing narrative of one of his lesser known works “We made a great stir in Antwerp docks,” would be a great opening line to any book, but it happens to be the first line of […]

Charlie Connelly on the perils and pitfalls of a much-missed fixture of the literary scene… the book signing. Last week something happened that felt like a communication from a different age: I was asked to appear at a literary festival. It’s not until next year and “obviously a lot of the details are TBC depending on […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a new book covering 2,000 years of English history at breakneck speed, right up to a gloomy ending in the present day…but with some cause for cautious optimism. English politicians have always displayed a particular interest in history. Maybe it’s a narcissistic thing, feeling that by stepping up to public office they […]

The city has been so scrutinised it is difficult to find much more new to say about it. But an enthralling new book has succeeded in this task, says CHARLIE CONNELLY. The early days of the coronavirus seem a long time ago now. Streets fell empty as we hunkered down, shops and businesses closed and […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on an atmospheric new book  – written before the pandemic – which perfectly captures the current national mood. This is, we’re told, the year of the staycation. Thanks to the coronavirus it’s been a word in common usage this year as those usually in a position to holiday abroad have their wings clipped […]

Among the many abiding images from Britain in 2020 some of the most memorable are of the packed summer crowds on the beach at Durdle Door in Dorset. Scorching temperatures combined with the cancellation of holidays abroad to have people throwing social distancing to the breeze and flocking in their thousands to the coast. The […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY comes up with the first half of his rundown of the top 20.

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a new novel about a Stasi agent immersed in the chilling oppression of the East German state, right up until its final moments. A few years ago I was in Leipzig with a film crew. We were being taken around the city by a local fixer called Tomas, a giant of a […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on how the great author ended up at his final resting place, far from where he had hoped to be. ‘Charles Dickens, the great American romancer, died yesterday of apoplexy. He was the Walter Scott of America.’ As bad takes go, that report of the demise of the great novelist that appeared in […]

With the virus restrictions preventing more than a brief daily stroll, CHARLIE CONNELLY goes in search of books that provide a bit more of a sense of journey. I miss walking. I mean, I get out once a day for a mooch about but it’s the same short route every time, nodding at the same […]

A chance lockdown discovery leads CHARLIE CONNELLY down memory lane to the Danish castle that inspired the Bard. We all have little jobs around the house that we’ve planning to get around to – for years in some cases. One of mine was going through a big box of old DVDs that needed sorting out […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a new book which takes us to a much storied corner of Europe. Confinement breeds wanderlust. If the current situation is teaching us anything positive it’s how to appreciate freedoms of which we thought practically nothing before, from seeing pasta on the shelves in a supermarket to throwing some clothes into a […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY reviews Graham Swift’s latest novel, a touching evocation of the end of an epoch Crowds flocking to a coastal seaside resort in September 1980. – Credit: Archant Brighton was characteristically busy during the summer season of 1959. As well as the ice creams, deck chairs and dodgems there was a huge choice of […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY explores the outbreak of the Spanish Flu and its reminder of mankind’s vulnerability. Red Cross volunteers fighting the Spanish flu epidemic in the United States, 1918. Photo: Apic/Getty Images. – Credit: Archant At 1600 Clifton Road in Atlanta, Georgia, lives a centenarian. To visit, however, one must don full protective clothing and breathing […]

Charlie Connelly explores the life of Jean-Pierre Blanchard – the balloonist with an inflated sense of his own importance. The morning of January 7, 1785, dawned bright and clear and the coast of France was clearly visible across the Channel from the castle overlooking Dover. The Channel had always made England a fortress. Twenty one […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on Snow, Dog, Foot, a moving novel about living life alone in a complex existence high up in the Alps. Sometimes the life of a hermit can be a very appealing prospect. Not being answerable to anyone, living entirely self-sufficiently and feeling completely separated from the comings, goings and machinations of the rest […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY runs his eye over the ever-growing range of literary podcasts Back in the olden days of broadcasting you’d struggle to find much in the way of literary discussion or representation coming through the ether. On television you’d get the odd parasol-twirling adaptation of a Regency novel, jowly men in heavy tweed jackets sitting […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY profiles on the Frenchman rescued from obscurity by a chance discovery in a Normandy dairy shed. By the spring of 1929 Jean-Placide Mauclaire had grown used to being given old reels of film. The previous year he had opened Studio 28, an art house cinema in the Montmartre district of Paris that quickly […]

The great European astronomer Caroline Herschel discovered more than eight comets. CHARLIE CONNELLY adds to her star-borne legacy “At the heavens there is no getting, for the high roofs of the opposite houses.” It was Boxing Day, 1822, when Caroline Herschel wrote these words in a letter to her nephew. She was 72 years old […]

Privilege can have drawbacks, as one member of the Italian aristocracy who wanted to carve out her own legacy found. CHARLIE CONNELLY reports on the life of Maria Teresa de Filippis. Maria Teresa de Filippis was the youngest of five siblings, the daughter of an Italian count who had made a fortune in engineering. She […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY profiles the great Dane Victor Borge. During the last year of the 20th century Victor Borge played 60 concerts. He was 90 years old. His material, a mixture of deft musical sketches and parodies interspersed with drily humorous quips and monologues, hadn’t changed much since he first began performing it in his native […]

charlie connelly attempts to buck the current trend for cultural stalemates, by picking the best.. and worst of 2019’s literary offerings. The Capital by Robert Menasse. Picture: MacLehose – Credit: Archant As politics grows ever more cutthroat, with grandmothers climbed over, ambition getting ever more naked and politicians competing with each other to tell the […]

Max Sebald was a writer who never experienced the horrors of the 20th century but in his writings he could never escape them. CHARLIE CONNELLY reports on his life. Author and academic professor WG ‘Max’ Sebald, 57, who was killed after his car was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry in December 2001. […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the life and tragic fate of Etty Hillesum, who turned down opportunities to go into hiding before her murder at Auschwitz. On a hot day in early September 1943 a train moved slowly across the flat Dutch countryside, clanking slowly along rails that shimmered in the heat. For the thousand Jews crammed […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY looks back on the life of Svetlana Alliluyeva. Soviet politician Lavrentiy Beria with Josef Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva, USSR, 1930s. Beria (1899-1953) was First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party during the 1930s. He began working in the security apparatus in the early 1920s and went (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images) […]

The original publication of The War of the Worlds was like a bombshell to an angst-ridden Britain suspicious of its neighbours. Now, why might the BBC consider a new adaption so timely? CHARLIE CONNELLY reports There’s never really a wrong time to revive H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Whenever a new adaptation comes […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY assesses the dramatic life of Vera Karalli and finds more to it than her apparent connection to one of the 20th century’s most intriguing killings The death of Grigori Rasputin, spiritual adviser to the Russian Tsar Nicholas and a particular favourite of the Tsarina Alexandra, in St Petersburg on December 30, 1916, is […]

Charlie Connelly delves into the life of Alexey Stakhanov, Stalin’s superstar miner. The evening of August 30, 1935, was a warm and muggy one in eastern Ukraine when Alexey Stakhanov left his small flat in Kadievka and headed for the night shift at the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine. The mine had been working round the clock since […]

Literary gongs seldom court much controversy. But, as CHARLIE CONNELLY explains, this year is different Polish author Olga Tokarczuk arrives prior to a press conference and a lecture after she was awarded with the 2018 Nobel Literature Prize. (Photo by Sascha Schuermann / AFP) (Photo by SASCHA SCHUERMANN/AFP via Getty Images) – Credit: AFP via […]

CHARLIE connelly on the death of a poet who chronicled his city’s epic story. There was something terribly poignant about how Ciaran Carson, who died on October 6, left us just when Northern Ireland was anchored to the top of the British news agenda for the first time in two decades. Diagnosed with terminal lung […]

Literature has been slow to reflect the awful onslaught of Alzheimer’s. But a new book does just that, and prompts a very personal response from CHARLIE CONNELLY. Charlie Connelly’s father, George. Picture: Charlie Connelly – Credit: Archant For a condition responsible for almost one in eight deaths in England and Wales each year Alzheimer’s remains […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on an angry book depicting life on the margins of the UK, which should be classed as one of the most important works of post-Brexit literature “It won’t be long before the statues start moving,” was a familiar refrain in Ireland when the global recession hit in 2008. Miraculous visions always increase during […]