Kate Cooper’s pacy tale of heroines, virgins and martyrs recounts the largely unknown role of women in shaping the early Church

Characterisation and a sense of place have been sacrificed for a magical realist atmosphere in Peter Ackroyd’s latest novel, Three Brothers

Perhaps the Booker judges awarded Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries the prize to ensure that their getting through all 836 exhausting pages of her frustrating novel wasn’t in vain

Benedict Cumberbatch is hard to watch as Julian Assange and a new Juliet brings to mind Shrek’s bride

Leonard Bernstein's letters reveal him as obsessed with music, career, politics, and (always) sex

The establishment hid Cyril Smith’s crimes. Imagine what they will do when the press is state-regulated

Henry Goodman is outstanding as Arturo Ui, the German playwright's terrifying caricature of Hitler

A distrust of politicians and a compassion for working people drove Honoré Daumier's work

Dissecting the reputation of a Pooterish atheist with a selfish, perhaps genetic, need to be noticed

Celebrating a convert to Christianity whose thinking was bold and writing imaginative