It's something of an irony that Billy T James' big breakthrough - which is to say his first star turn on television - had him cast as a poncy English twit by the name of Dexter Fitzgibbons.

Subtitled, "Maori Showbands, Balladeers and Pop Stars", this 50-track collection arrives right on cue.

I'm not entirely sure that this sleek and classy Italian psychological thriller plays fair with its audience. But I'm even less sure that if I watched it a dozen times I'd be able to spot the moments when it cheated.

If somebody locks himself in a stranger's spare room for months, is he escaping the world or facing up to it?

The internal lives of a film's characters have seldom been as precisely and enthrallingly reflected in the landscape as in this engrossing Russian feature. It's set and shot quite literally on the edge of the Earth, at Valkarkai Polar Research Station.

This Glasgow quartet have previously delivered folkadelia but right from the ringing guitars of this, their third album, they have moved more firmly into psychedelic rock.

When you have two other sisters to share the burden and jolly you along, there's no need to wallow in the pain of a breakup. Which is why the Sami Sisters' debut album has such a delightful sense of fun, despite the subject being on the gloomy side.

As off-putting as Kanye West's self-important ego is, the guy makes fascinating and often challenging music. So you'd expect a collaboration between himself and hip-hop's other bigwig, Jay-Z, to be something of an innovative triumph.

Singer/bassist Kelly Sherrod and guitarist/singer James Duncan follow the dreamy folk-psychedelia of their self-titled 2006 EP with this beguiling, hypnotic album.

Anyone who was at the world premiere screening of this film on the opening night of last month's International Film Festival is either still grinning at the memory or has passed away in the interim.

Thank goodness for the sunny and sexy New York setting and the comedic timing of John Krasinski (The Office, Away We Go); both shining lights that elevate what is otherwise a sluggish rom com based on Emily Giffin's novel of the same name.

As a teenager, Amelia Costello could never understand why her mum, singer Pixie Williams, was only known for her 1949 hit Blue Smoke.

Joyce Carol Oates, a prolific and award-winning writer, has assembled and revised a collection of essays and reviews that originally appeared in places such as the New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement.

Nifty title. Nifty concept. Stories about work - manual work; skilled work; responsible, itinerant, above-board or undercover work. Nifty aim, also: all proceeds go to fund youth literacy programmes across the United States.

Fashionistas have a bad reputation as being flaky and dumb. Ruthless and mean. Vain and pompous. Extravagant and decadent. But never, ever boring. So you would think the fashion industry would provide fabulous material for a reality television programme.

This outstanding transcription of extraordinary events carries a telling subtitle: "A Novel of a Life".

We still know little for sure about the prospects for intelligent fiction in a digital age. Yet most observers agree that the status of the professional "career novelist" may shift from that of a rare species to a deeply endangered one.