Lord of the Rings This article is more than 11 years oldHobbit release marked with giant Gollum sculpture at Wellington airportThis article is more than 11 years oldPiece measuring 13m, featuring Gollum diving for 4m fish, welcomes visitors to 'the middle of Middle-earth' in New ZealandIf you happen to be visiting Wellington airport over the next few months, don't be surprised to be greeted by Gollum, the miserable creature at the centre of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Read More...
Book of the dayFictionReviewA private chef for the ultra-rich confronts the inequality of survival, in a sensual novel of ideas that asks difficult questions
It’s getting harder to see a difference between dystopian and realist fiction. Land of Milk and Honey, Zhang’s second novel after the deservedly Booker-longlisted How Much of These Hills Is Gold, is set in a near future or alternative present in which smog has covered almost the whole planet, ending agriculture and causing global famine and mass extinction. Read More...
MusicObituaryPervis JacksonBass singer with the Detroit Spinners for more than 50 yearsThe 1970s were the heyday of the Philly Sound in soul and R&B music, a soft, orchestrated, close-harmony vocal group style that sold millions of records. One of the main purveyors of the Philly Sound was the five-man Spinners group, whose long-serving bass singer, Pervis Jackson, has died of cancer aged 70.
The group had its origins among a gang of high school students in Detroit, although Jackson had been born in New Orleans. Read More...