Books
The spiritual yearnings of David Bowie
Gnosticism was one of Bowie’s lifelong obsessions and the outer reaches of religious thought inspired many of his lyrics
The scandal of California’s stolen water
Ever since the building of the 233-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct, begun in 1905, diversion of water by unscrupulous conglomerates has left swathes of the Golden State a toxic desert
Coming of age in Melbourne: Landscape with Landscape, by Gerald Murnane, reviewed
The protagonists of these six linked stories are much like the young Murnane himself, dreaming of becoming a writer and escaping to the wilds of Australia
Odd man out: The Burning Origin, by Daniele Mencarelli, reviewed
An ambitious designer based in Milan returns home to Rome on a visit and finds himself torn between nostalgia for childhood and disgust for his underachieving friends
The many shades of Pink Floyd
Founded 60 years ago, the multi-million-selling rock band has had five incarnations to date, with members dying, resigning or suing each other in a series of blistering law suits
After the party: One of Us, by Elizabeth Day, reviewed
In a sequel to Day’s 2017 novel The Party, the art historian Martin Gilbert dreams of revenge on his former friend Ben Fitzmaurice, now a dazzling Tory politician with a dark secret
The glorious ventilation shafts hiding in plain sight
Victorians took pleasure in artfully disguising these essential life-saving structures – and contemporary architects continue the tradition to equally spectacular effect
The adventures of an improbable rock journalist
Cameron Crowe started writing for Rolling Stone aged just 15. But both as reporter and later as filmmaker, his innate decency made him decidedly ‘uncool’
Global fish stocks have been perilous for decades – so why is still so little being done?
Dredgers continue to destroy the seabed, illegal fishing vessels routinely encroach on no-take zones and governments persist in granting unsustainable catch quotas to their national fleets
An entertaining demolition of futurology
Nick Foster explores the various ways we think about the future, from thrilled anticipation through to panicked doom-mongering
The lionising of Richard I over the centuries
The Plantagenet king whose life was packed with glamour, blood and brutality would have relished the heroic legends that steadily accrued after his death
No passive utopia: Tibetan Sky, by Ning Ken, reviewed
Tibet is portrayed as an uneasy cultural crossroads where globalisation, spirituality and the political traumas of two peoples collide in this sardonic, erudite novel
A supernatural western: Tom’s Crossing, by Mark Z. Danielowski, reviewed
We know from the outset that things will end very darkly indeed in this epic novel set in Utah during the run-up to Halloween, 1982
The fertile chaos of Albert Camus’s mind
A comprehensive new edition of the writer’s notebooks allows us to take a deep dive into his theories about absurdity, tragedy, nobility and death and his schemes for future stories
The strange afterlife of This is Spinal Tap
The creators of the mother of all mockumentaries share anecdotes about the film’s origins, how it was made, why it matters and the way fiction transformed into fact
A prolonged love affair: The Two Roberts, by Damian Barr, reviewed
A tender, evocative novel portrays the lives of the once celebrated painters Colquhoun and MacBride, from their first meeting in Glasgow to their fractious later years
Glamour and intrigue: The Silver Book, by Olivia Laing, reviewed
A rigorously researched novel mingles fact and fiction in retelling the events that led up to the murder of the film director Pier Paolo Pasolini on 2 November 1975
The history of modern Ireland, seen through the lives of its leaders
Reading the biographies of its 16 taoisigh, we can trace Ireland’s astonishing progress from poverty-stricken backwater to thriving liberal democracy
The surreal drama of Helsinki’s history
Henrik Meinander tells the story of a city ravaged by plague, fire, war and occupation being constantly rebuilt and resettled over five centuries
The diminutive dictator who ruled Spain with an iron fist
Fifty years after Franco’s death, Giles Tremlett assesses the generalisimo’s bloodstained legacy
Margaret Atwood settles old scores
Being a Scorpio, the 85-year-old novelist explains, she ‘holds grudges’ – but the many past grievances she recalls in detail make for dispiriting reading
Carlo Scarpa’s artful management of light and space
The startling interventions and adaptations of a great 20th-century Venetian architect and designer are examined in detail by Federica Goffi
AI, a near miss, and a pleasing history
My pick of the books of 2025
Songs of murder, rape and desertion
Amy Jeffs rediscovers the disturbing beauty of traditional ballads
The evasions of smalltown Alabama: The Land of Sweet Forever, by Harper Lee, reviewed
Apprentice stories contain much of the raw material for To Kill a Mockingbird, as Lee tries to reconcile love for home with disgust at its prejudices
