Wynn Wheldon

A tribute to Alf Ramsey, football’s forgotten hero

2 September 2023 9:00 am

England’s 1966 World Cup triumph owed much to the team’s dedicated manager, loved by his players but monstrously treated by those in charge of the FA

The long and the short of it

11 February 2023 9:00 am

There are many vagaries about measurements, says Claire Cock-Starkey: the length of the foot has often changed, but British shoe sizes hark back to the reign of Edward II

More stirring stories of little ships

13 August 2022 9:00 am

‘I found this story by accident,’ begins Julia Jones’s Uncommon Courage, referring to documents belonging to her late father that…

The Georgians feel closer to us now than the Victorians

22 January 2022 9:00 am

‘The two most fascinating subjects in the universe are sex and the 18th century,’ declared the novelist Brigid Brophy when…

The Great War was enough to make grown men weep

7 December 2019 9:00 am

Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo it took a mere six weeks for the diplomats of Europe’s…

Does a stick insect count as a pet?

8 June 2019 9:00 am

What is it that distinguishes humans from other animals? The default answer nowadays is tediously misanthropic, but a more interesting…

Jan Morris. Credit: Colin McPherson/Getty Images

Jan Morris talks to herself — about music, irony and cats

15 September 2018 9:00 am

To Jan Morris, I am anathema. That goes, too, for David Attenborough. It is a word that this unarguably great…

The rich literature of the game of poker

2 December 2017 9:00 am

According to the subtitle, this is a collection of ‘short stories of long nights at the poker table’. Were that…

Anthony Quinn’s Freya: an engaging costume drama

5 March 2016 9:00 am

The name Freya is derived from the old Norse word for ‘spouse’, perhaps Odin’s. As a goddess she is variously…

To the ends of the earth — but not back

7 November 2015 9:00 am

What’s in a name? The identity of the author offers a clue to one of the themes of this intriguing…

A moving tribute to Janusz Korczak, hero of the Warsaw ghetto

27 June 2015 9:00 am

‘My mother and father named me Aron, but my father said they should have named me What Have You Done,…

All change: everything metamorphoses in Aquarium, including its author, who takes on the persona of a 12-year-old girl

14 March 2015 9:00 am

Books ought to be able to stand on their own, but perhaps it is important to know this about David…

A ghost story without the scary bits

24 January 2015 9:00 am

Two men walk into an ice cream parlour in Austin, Texas, order the three teenage girls working there to undress,…

A big literary beast's descent into incoherence

8 November 2014 9:00 am

Something odd happened between the advance publicity for this book and its printed appearance. Trailed as addressing the troubled history…

Things to do: read this book

1 November 2014 9:00 am

It would be perverse not to succumb to the temptation to write this review as a list. So, the first…

Kafka goes to Dubai

30 August 2014 9:00 am

‘X’ is in ‘the Situation’: Joseph O’Neill, author of the clever and superb Netherland, hereby lets us know that his…

Sorbet with Rimbaud

23 August 2014 9:00 am

The Bloomsbury of the title refers to the place, not the group. The group didn’t have a poet. ‘I would…

The Zone of Interest is grubby, creepy – and Martin Amis's best for 25 years

16 August 2014 9:00 am

‘Everybody could see that this man was not a “monster”, but it was difficult indeed not to suspect that he…

Nature inspired P.J. Kavanagh – but so did ghosts, dreams, grief and God

7 June 2014 9:00 am

P.J. Kavanagh, if not dismissed or relegated, is often shall we say bracketed, as a ‘nature poet’. The truth is,…

Half-poetry, half-prose, half-Belgian – and not half bad

3 May 2014 9:00 am

Patrick McGuinness’s prose trembles on the edge of poetry, occasionally indeed tipping gently over into it. This is thoroughly characteristic…

A master craftsman of the anecdote

15 March 2014 9:00 am

One of the many charms of this book is its sheer unexpectedness, which makes it hard to review, for to…

Deserter, wifebeater, great poet: the shame and glory of Vernon Scannell

14 December 2013 9:00 am

Vernon Scannell was a thief, a liar, a deserter, a bigamist, a fraud, an alcoholic, a woman-beater and a coward.…

A Strong Song Tows Us, by Richard Burton - review

12 October 2013 9:00 am

How minor is minor? ‘Rings a bell’ was more or less the response of two English literature graduates, now successful…

Six Bad Poets, by Christopher Reid - review

28 September 2013 9:00 am

Is poetry in good enough health to be made fun of in this way? The irony is that this long,…

There and Then: Personal Terms 6, by Frederic Raphael - review

31 August 2013 9:00 am

Frederic Raphael is forensic in his description of the failures of successful people. He is enviously superior and he is…