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"Book Reviews"
Saturday 5th May, 2012
When I read that the award-winning comedian and frenetic brainbox Russell Kane had secured a book deal for a tale about a misanthropic, anhedonistic comedy critic, my first reaction was “Really? And he doesn’t even know me that well…” I realised a few pages into the book, however, [...]
Reviewed by Julian Hall
The Independent
Friday, 14 October 2011
The title of Steve Coogan’s maligned live comeback tour of 2009, “Alan Partridge and Other Less Successful Characters”, told you everything you needed to know about its variable quality. The lingering affection for the headline act, his bumptious [...]
Reality is Broken
By Jane McGonigal
Reviewed by Julian Hall
Independent on Sunday
30 January 2011
Engaging with the argument that gamers are our future feels a bit like a game itself.
It’s one in which I pit my wits against the California-based alternative-reality guru and academic [...]
Reviewed by Julian Hall
Independent on Sunday
20th June 2010
Even if you consider many accounts of middle-class drug addiction as tending towards a self-imposed mess, you’d be hard pressed not to be captivated by the prose of Bill Clegg, a fallen angel (now redeemed – not least by [...]
Reviewed by Julian Hall
Independent on Sunday, 6th June 2010
The World Cup beginning in South Africa this week is the icing on the cake of African football’s contribution to the global game. It is a contribution that was heralded so memorably by Roger Milla’s World Cup goal celebration “wiggle” [...]
Independent on Sunday, 14th February 2010
If you are the kind of person who generally wears (and is worn down by) a metaphorical sandwich-board proclaiming that “The End is Nigh”, then you will no doubt enjoy reading prophecies of doom, be they in works of science fiction, fantasy or in The [...]
The grumpy old man of comedy surveys his career
Reviewed by Julian Hall
Independent on on Sunday, 24th May 2009
Arthur Smith once helped me to promote a book I wrote by taking a BBC reporter for a wander around his self-proclaimed fiefdom of Balham. That he [...]