Baroness Thatcher's tale prompted an oddly persistent squalling from the benches. Her fellow mothers were far more intrigued

If I'm one of Thatcher's children, born as I was in 1980, what's Kitty? Her grandchild?

Kitty's contemporaries, more grandchildren of Thatcher, were certainly not interested in hearing about the trials and tribulations of...

Jump out of the Phone Booth and into the ATM booth ... there's plenty of room to watch the trailer (and don't forget your anorak)

There are few things that suit thrillers more than claustrophobia. Think Funny Games, set mostly inside a single house. Or Devil, set inside a lift. Or Buried, set inside a coffin. Or Phone Booth, set inside... actually,...

David Cameron is set to call for UK lottery funding to go to films with big box-office potential. But what will that mean for small-scale, independent cinema?

The plans to overhaul public funding of British cinema, which David Cameron will announce later today during a visit to Pinewood studios, has so far drawn divided reactions.

According to early...

Finger at the ready

IN AN early scene in “The Iron Lady”, Britain’s former prime minister, aged and shuffling, steps out to buy a pint of milk. Ahead of Margaret Thatcher in the queue at the corner shop is a porky chap with a mobile, one of those who prospered under Thatcherism. Behind her stands a thin teenager, a nameless hoodie who would have lov...

Best foot forward

Europe’s Angry Muslims: The Revolt of the Second Generation. By Robert Leiken. Oxford University Press USA; 368 pages; $27.95. Buy from Amazon.com

The Emancipation of Europe’s Muslims: The State’s Role in Minority Integration. By Jonathan Laurence. Princeton University Press; 392 pages; $29.95 and £20.95. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon...

Wanted Women: Faith, Lies, and the War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui. By Deborah Scroggins. Harper; 539 pages; $27.99. To be published in Britain in February by HarperCollins; £16.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

AYAAN HIRSI ALI and Aafia Siddiqui are forceful, intelligent women who were born around 40 years ago in...

Still singing for the fatherland

Sometimes There is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider. By Zakes Mda. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 576 pages; $35. Buy from Amazon.com

THEY “stopped the gravy train just long enough to get on themselves,” said Desmond Tutu in disgust over the post-apartheid greed of South Africa’s liberation elite. If Zakes Mda’s account is ...

Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria. By Noo Saro-Wiwa. Granta; 309 pages; £14.99. Buy from Amazon.co.uk

THROUGHOUT her childhood and early teens, Noo Saro-Wiwa spent every summer in Nigeria. The flight back always came as a shock, as was the arrival itself. The noise, decay and corruption of Lagos airport were unending, along with the...

Calories and Corsets: A History of Dieting Over 2000 Years. By Louise Foxcroft. Profile; 232 pages; £14.99. Buy from Amazon.co.uk

AFTER the binge of the holidays, many stumble into January with a hangover, some fragile resolutions and a desire to shed a few pounds. Alas, few will benefit from rigid calorie-counting or cabbage-soup slurping. In a...

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