Books

Rosemary Shrager in her Kent kitchen (Image: Steve Finn) Haflway through our interview, a courier arrives at her cottage in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and asks Rosemary Shrager to sign for an unexpected parcel. “I love this sort of thing; I love a present,” the celebrity chef declares, as she deftly …

Abraham Lincoln adored possum dip, Eisenhower was a squirrel meat man while Franklin Delano Roosevelt loved nothing more than buffalo tongue as an appetiser. In more modern times, President John F Kennedy and First Lady Jackie hired a French chef to prepare exquisite everyday meals at the White House, as …

JK Rowling has denied intending to “upset anyone” with her views on transgender rights. The Harry Potter author was attacked by some activists when she questioned allowing trans women in women-only spaces. Ms Rowling, 57, told the podcast The Witch Trials Of JK Rowling that critics who claim her gender …

Roald Dahl’s children’s books are being rewritten to remove language deemed offensive (Image: GETTY) You might describe it, as indeed the Prime Minister’s official spokesman did this week, as “gobblefunking” around with language. Augustus Gloop is no longer fat, the Cloud-Men in James And The Giant Peach have become Cloud-People …

The first Harry Potter manuscript was hidden by JK Rowling’s abusive ex-husband in a bid to stop her from leaving him, the best-selling author has revealed. Jorge Arantes stole the pages of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to hold like a “hostage”, she says – leading her to fear …

Agatha Christie’s classic novel Murder Is Easy will be adapted into a two-part thriller for the BBC, the broadcaster announced on Tuesday. Known as one of the Queen of Crime’s most disconcerting novels, the eerie whodunnit was first published in the 1930s and has been a cult favourite with fans …

GMB: Michael Rosen looks back on his battle with coronavirus Michael Rosen is pondering his feelings towards health secretary turned I’m A Celebrity insect-muncher Matt Hancock and our elected leaders over their handling of the covid pandemic that nearly cost him his life. “How do I feel about the way …

John Sweeney in his lucky orange hat (Image: ) It’s a typical Sweeney anecdote, managing to convey both the former Panorama and Newsnight broadcaster’s swashbuckling approach to war reporting and his self-deprecating sense of humour. “When things are this bad in the world, you’ve got to laugh,” he smiles. Sweeney …

The Headmaster – “terrified that one free mind would bring the edifice to nought” – forces him to eat his congealed semolina, which he does, “unblinking, jam-eyed, quizzical.” Then, remembers Barrie, writing some seventy years later, “The Head departs – threat repulsed,/but I saw truths, invisible.” The first of these …

Bond star Roger Moore and the Bond Girls from ‘View to a Kill’ (Image: Getty) As confident in the bedroom as in a gunfight, irresistibly attractive, and often deadly, Ian Fleming’s Bond Girls are some of the coolest female characters in fiction and on the big screen. But how did …