In the beginning was the word. And then came 140 words — or, more precisely, 140 characters.
A raunchy novel with a dauntless heroine has transformed the lives of a 93-year-old author and three of her friends who were living in nursing homes.
The commercial wizardry of Harry Potter has conquered new territory with a fillip to a type of book, <i>What’s Your Story?</i>
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/ 26 October 2007
Britain’s traditional reluctance to speak directly for fear of causing embarrassment or offence has survived into the new world of blogging and instant communication across the world. Far from turning into a frank, straightforward nation, the country has invented hundreds of new euphemisms to add to its ancient store of phrases, such as ”my unmentionables” and ”the departed”.
A controversial artwork has been unveiled as the centrepiece of major British Royal Academy exhibition, writes Martin Wainwright
Slavery has made a "horrific" return to modern Britain, according to the most wide-ranging study of the secret world of forced labour yet published. Shocking statistics about the country’s sex trade, including an estimated 5 000 under-16s coerced into prostitution, mask equally violence-ridden and illegal practices in jobs ranging from crop-picking and factory work to nursing and the catering trade.
Millions of hobbit-lovers and elf enthusiasts are being cajoled to advance the frontiers of knowledge by joining an academic study of why The Lord of the Rings is so popular. Martin Wainwright investigates.
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/ 14 November 2003
When Reverend Graham Taylor finally put his talent to use, he socked the biblical parable way beyond all previously known boundaries. Taylor was a rural vicar who had to sell his motorbike to get his first novel published. Now he’s considered a threat to JK Rowling, writes Martin Wainwright.