* My Family is a Zoo by K Gerrard, Illustrated by Emma Dodd (Bloomsbury, €9.00).

Justin Kurzel’s version of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (15A) opens with an extraordinarily vivid battle scene, as loyal Macbeth (Michael Fassbender) goes to war on behalf of King Duncan (David Thewlis).

With roles as Macbeth and Steve Jobs, Irishman Michael Fassbender is currently the hottest actor in the business, writes Helen Barlow

A soldier sets his eyes on the Scottish throne.

The world may be long overdue a Madam President of the United States of America — but is Hillary Clinton the right woman for the position? Suzanne Harrington looks at a candidate who divides international and feminist opinion.

Her ‘House of Cards’ character gets to the top of the pile by ruthless ambition, but Robin Wright is more laid back and relaxed about her career, Ed Power discovers.

Matt Smith would have become "meaner" had he stayed on 'Doctor Who'.

For higher-level Leaving Certificate English students, Seamus Heaney appeared for a second day running — but it was an unseen poem of his that made yesterday’s long Paper 2.

“Oh shut up, Baldrick – you’d laugh at a Shakespeare comedy.”

How is it, asks Louise O’Neill, that men accused of heinous crimes continue to have careers, while women, in less trouble, are discarded in LA?

BROODY, brisk, and bracing, Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest and punchiest tragedy. A new, energetic production of the macabre play is being staged at Smock Alley by Fast Intent theatre company.

A mother repeatedly stabbed her friend 22 times with a homemade “shiv” in a vicious and horrific attack in an Ennis playground earlier this year.

Michael Fassbender is set to star in a new adaptation of 'Macbeth'.

IN speaking of the Neil Prendeville imbroglio, Pat Kenny is quoted (Irish Examiner, November 4) as saying: “On one hand, nobody had died, everyone present was adult and lots of people have been subjected to that kind of exposure from time to time.”

AS students began into the drudgery of the 2007 State exams, there were no controversial questions on yesterday’s English papers.

PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS chief whip Liz O’Donnell was accused of backstabbing Fianna Fáil yesterday, after blaming them for the criticism being heaped on the Government.

Singer-actress Courtney Love is to try her hand at Shakespearean drama after she finishes her next album, America’s Sweetheart.

Slobodan Milosevic’s wife left Belgrade today to visit her husband in a UN prison in the Netherlands where he is being held pending trial for atrocities in Kosovo.