David Barnett

What’s with celebs thinking they can dabble in a craft others study and work hard at for years? If you care about literature, you’ll favour us little guys over film and TV stars, writes actual author David Barnett...

Picture the scene: the A-list actor, Keira Knightley, opens the door to find me — a slightly shabby-looking, largely unknown writer — standing on her doorstep holding a stack of big cards and a tape player. Inexplicably, she does not call the police, but with a puzzled smile invites me to continue. I hold up the first card, which says “Say it’s carol singers,” while pressing play on a crackly recording of “Away In a Manger”. It is October, Keira quite reasonably points out. “OK, say it’s trick or treaters,” my next card reads, and I turn the tape over to play “The Monster Mash”.

***New Video Alert!

Folk horror—the horror of ‘The Wicker Man' and strange rituals and fairie forests—is enjoying a revival. Why? We go looking for answers in forgotten places...

A biography by a British graphic novelist of Elon Musk is struggling to find an English-language publisher due to feared “legal consequences”.

Darryl Cunningham blames fear of ‘legal consequences’ for reluctance to take on book, now only available in French

A new exhibition at Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries examines the enduring appeal of divination

For any entity looking to launch a new company or other initiative, a primary requirement is often the selection of an appropriate brand name and the acquisition of a relevant associated domain name. In light of the increasing shortage of short, unregistered memorable names on popular domain name extensions (TLDs), many organisations are choosing to adopt novel or invented brand names and/or consider the use of alternative TLDs.

Co-authored by David Barnett, Stobbs and Stuart Fuller, Com Laude.

Had Rod Serling, creator of ‘The Twilight Zone', lived twice his number of years, he would have turned 100 on Christmas Day 2024. His shows remain vital