Howard Jacobson

Celebrated novelist Howard Jacobson's most recent novel is 'The Finkler Question', published to great acclaim in 2010. An acerbic critic and broadcaster with a passion for literature and art, he is known for his ebullient wit. Recent television programmes such as Jesus the Jew and Creation have also been widely admired.

i Newspaper
 
TheIPaper
The Independent around the web
E-break Time
Independent Crossword

Twitter or toasters: if we don’t like what they bring to our lives, we can simply shut them out

If we blame the medium for everything, must we charge the toaster for inciting lust?

I was a self-hating child, so if it’s a choice between babies and my 100-year-old mother-in-law...

The old make for far more stimulating company than the young

If the Rolling Stones don’t make a fascist of me, then Andy Murray surely will

Never join, is my motto. Never clap along, never sing along, never do as asked

A fiver says it should be D H Lawrence’s face on the back of one of our notes

If Jane Austen had genius, then we need another word again for what Lawrence had

Seduced by the fedora, turned off by the trilby – a man’s hat can tell you a lot about his art

Famous hat-wearers, the painter L S Lowry and the singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen might seem strange bedfellows, but it's what's under that tifter that really counts

We have a right to be grumpy old people – there’s much to be angry about nowadays

It's not retirement that defines getting older, it's refusing to play along

The NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, USA

In an age where everyone wants to be noticed, is being spied on such a bad thing?

If you don’t want agency geeks nosing into what you put online, then don’t put it there

Malorie Blackman, the author of the bestselling Noughts and Crosses series

The Children's Laureate says education needs relevance, but is 'identifying' really so important?

As young readers we probably wouldn’t have said that the best books are inclusive in a way that transcends skin colour, religion or ethnic identity, but we knew they were

31 May 2013: Soldiers lay flowers at the scene of the killing of British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, southeast London. The inquest into Rigby's death was opened and adjourned.

According to the commentator Culpability Brown, we have brought these terrors upon ourselves

In what other context, these days, do we allow people to tell us we have it coming?

Finding the sweetest way to be insulting to someone is one of the few consolations left to us

All things considered, calling someone a "swivel-eyed loon" isn't so bad

Day In a Page

Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

The great war photographer was not one person but two. Their pictures of Spain's civil war, lost for decades, tell a heroic tale
The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

Someone, somewhere has to write speeches for world leaders to deliver in the event of disaster. They offer a chilling hint at what could have been
Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Think comedy’s a man's world? You must be stuck in the 1980s, says Holly Williams
Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

The Dr Feelgood guitarist talks frankly about his terminal illness
Lure of the jingle: Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life

Lure of the jingle

Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life
Who stole the people's own culture?

DJ Taylor: Who stole the people's own culture?

True popular art drives up from the streets, but the commercial world wastes no time in cashing in
Guest List: The IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Guest List: IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Before you stuff your luggage with this year's Man Booker longlist titles, the case for some varied poolside reading alternatives
What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

Rupert Cornwell: What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

The CIA whistleblower struck a blow for us all, but his 1970s predecessor showed how to win
'A man walks into a bar': Comedian Seann Walsh on the dangers of mixing alcohol and stand-up

Comedian Seann Walsh on alcohol and stand-up

Comedy and booze go together, says Walsh. The trouble is stopping at just the one. So when do the hangovers stop being funny?
From Edinburgh to Hollywood (via the Home Counties): 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Edinburgh to Hollywood: 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Hugh Montgomery profiles the faces to watch, from the sitcom star to the surrealist
'Hello. I have cancer': When comedian Tig Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on

Comedian Tig Notaro: 'Hello. I have cancer'

When Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on
They think it's all ova: Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Our chef made his name cooking eggs, but he’s never stopped looking for new ways to serve them
The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

With its own Tiger Woods - South Korea's Inbee Park - the women's game has a growing audience
10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

Here are the potential stars of the World Championships which begin on Saturday
The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

Briefings are off the record leading to transfer speculation which is merely a means to an end