TAKE a journey into the life and world of sci-fi writer Brian Aldiss with his new collection of essays, An Exile on Planet Earth, published by the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library. Aldiss, who's also a poet, playwright, artist and memoirist, has w

Temperatures in Marrakech are warming up, with highs of around 18C. Later this month the city hosts the Marrakech Biennale (29 Feb–4 Mar). A celebration of arts, literature and debate, it attracts both a local and an international line-up – this year's f

Illustrator Karen Caldicott created a portrait of Steve Jobs in her trademark clay style for Fortune Magazine in 2007. Imagine her surprise when she recently found her image being used to advertise a Jobs figure for sale on eBay: one which bears little r

A BBC executive said the corporation was "delivering value for money" on the day it published expenses claims showing senior staff claimed thousands of pounds for taxi journeys and entertaining. Director of business operations Lucy Adams said the 25% cut

Infamous, flamboyant film-maker Ken Russell died last year aged 84. This tribute sees Alan Yentob reflect on a colourful career. Russell first made his name in the Sixties with brilliant documentaries on Elgar, Delius and Debussy, which not only bro

A BBC executive said the corporation was 'delivering value for money' on the day it published expenses claims showing senior staff claimed thousands of pounds for taxi journeys and entertaining. Director of business operations Lucy Adams said the 25 per

A BBC executive said the corporation was "delivering value for money" on the day it published expenses claims showing senior staff claimed thousands of pounds for taxi journeys and entertaining. Director of business operations Lucy Adams said the 25% cut

Artist and writer Katherine Tyrrell draws and writes about art for artists and art lovers Topics include: art news, art blogs, drawing, painting, visual artists, art competitions, art exhibitions, art history; art techniques and tips; art business and ma

Saturday 9.00pm Ken Russell: A Bit of A Devil BBC2 - Following the recent death of Ken Russell, Alan Yentob looks back over the career of the flamboyant film director responsible for Women In Love, Tommy and The Devils. Friends and admirers - including

I'm beseeched by a fortune-teller and hailed by a juice stall vendor. Clouds of swirling brazier smoke envelop me amid throbbing drums and chiming cymbals. Al fresco chefs beckon cheerily from their portable kitchens and tables heaving with food and goat

The company, which offers studios, post production and digital media services to the media industry, is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It is based at London’s Television Centre, Elstree and Bristol and works in partnership with media companies creat

Alan Yentob, the BBC's creative director, is to join the board of BBC Studios and Post Production as a non-executive director, it has been announced. A commercial subsidiary of the BBC, Studios and Post Production is the UK's largest provider of studios

Imagine: The Art of Stand-UpBBC1, 11.15pm Alan Yentob concludes his serious look at the funny business, exploring the evolution of stand-up comedy. Among the comics he meets is stream-of-conscious-ness master Eddie Izzard (left). Others revealing their p

While this series of Imagine has so far illuminated such potentially fusty subjects as Simon & Garfunkel and the rise of e-books, Alan Yentob's series could do with a few more killer one-liners. Luckily for the next two weeks the subject is comedy in a

Can a career that relies on making other people laugh ever make you laugh yourself? While Alan Yentob doesn't set out solely to answer these questions (we've just always wanted to know), the first of this two-part documentary is insightful in how it span

He has shed the deerstalker hat and pipe, opium smoking is out, and the Hound of the Baskervilles is nowhere to be seen. Sherlock Holmes may have started life as a Victorian detective, but now he has been recast as the star of 2012. What began as a serie

Books, we're constantly being told, are on the way out and yet an astonishing 140,000 new titles were published in the UK alone last year.Alan Yentob didn't mention that fact in his Imagine film, Books: The Last Chapter? (BBC1), which focused on whether

WITH the rise of electronic books, is the final chapter about to be written in the long love story between books and their readers? Alan Yentob discusses the subject with writers Alan Bennett, Douglas Coupland, Ewan Morrison and Gary Shteyngart, publishe

Tomorrow night on BBC One, Alan Yentob’s documentary series Imagine continues with a look at the future of books in the digital age. It’s titled Books – The Last Chapter?