“John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono with contributions from the people who were there (published by Thames & Hudson)

The screams heard around the world

Come 1969, lovable fab moptop John Winston Lennon had gone a bit crazy. Schooldays sweetheart Cyn had been abandoned in favour of this weird Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, and the two of them made three albums of listenable-once noise experiments. They were full-frontal ...

“Agatha Christie, First Lady of Crime” Edited by H.R.F. Keating (published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson)

One of life’s great mysteries

Here at The Budapest Times we like to consider ourselves as moderately well-read (albeit with plenty of glaring gaps in our literary adventures), and there came a time many years ago when we decided it was high time we should sample Agatha Christie, the ...

“Ukraine Railroad Ladies” by Sasha Maslov (published by Osnovy)

Some things never change, and we’re happy about that

We got in a bit of bother with a Transylvanian man once, after we went there and then wrote an article saying how many horses and carts were still around.

Plan outlined for carbon-zero emissions

Bill Gates book aims to avoid climate catastrophe

American business magnate and humanitarian Bill Gates has written an urgent book setting out a wide-ranging, practical vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe.

“My Life and Rugby” by Eddie Jones (published by Pan Books)

Peaks, pitfalls in pursuit of perfection

One year down, three years to go. One way we measure our life here at The Budapest Times is in the four-yearly Rugby World Cups. It was in September 2019 that we watched England, coached by Australia’s Eddie Jones, demolish the hot favourites, New ...

“I Wanna Be Yours” by John Cooper Clarke (published by Picador)

What larks from one of poetry’s patriarchs

John Cooper Clarke may wanna be ours but he’s a bit late. He doesn’t know it but he’s been ours pretty much right from the beginning, when his wild poetry wended its way into our attention at the height of the punk music outbreak ...

“Owls of the Eastern Ice” by Jonathan C. Slaght (published by allen lane)

A man, a bird and a book

Slaght’s book is subtitled “The Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl”, and the feathered friend in question is the Blakiston’s fish owl, one of nature’s rarest birds. The location is Primorye, a remote corner of the world on the far eastern ...

“Born on the Fourth of July” by Ron Kovic (published by Canongate)

52 years in a wheelchair, so far

The Vietnam War was an American disaster. Iggy Pop, who performed in Budapest last year, avoided it by acting crazy at his draft hearing. Creedence Clearwater Revival sang about the “Fortunate Son”s of senators who were assigned at home instead of fighting in the ...

“Stranger Than Kindness” by Nick Cave (published by Canongate)

Magic, mostly, in this Aladdin’s Cave

We have the Royal Danish Library to thank for this handsome book displaying a splendid collection of Nick Cave kitsch and ephemera, handwritten lyrics and original artwork, archival photographs and personal possessions.

“Me” by Elton John (published by Macmillan)

Have you heard the one about Princess Diana?

“The great thing about rock and roll is that someone like me can be a star,” says Elton John, meaning that he was just an ordinary bloke from a dull London suburb. What he says is partly true – you don’t have to sing ...