Lead book review
James Bond's secret: he's Jamaican
Lewis Jones on Ian Fleming’s Jamaican retreat and the inspiration it provided for the Bond novels
Kaiser Wilhelm's guide to ruining a country
The life of Kaiser Wilhelm II is also a guide to how to ruin a country, says Philip Mansel
The age of the starving artist
Philip Hensher on the precarious fortunes of even the most gifted 19th-century artists
Why movie musicals matter – to this author anyway
Sam Leith finds much to like in a companion to musical films, and concludes that they matter very much – to the author anyway
It's not just Putin who misses the Soviet empire. President Bush did, too
In the latest – and best – of the books on the end of the USSR, Victor Sebestyen finds that the only good thing about the Soviet empire was the manner of its passing
Doctor Zhivago's long, dark shadow
The banning of Dr Zhivago in the Soviet Union had unfortunate consequences for other fine 20th-century Russian novels, says Robert Chandler
Thug, rapist, poetic visionary: the contradictory Earl of Rochester
Philip Hensher on the scandalous 17th-century courtier whose hellfire reputation has overshadowed his fine satirical poetry
An old soldier sees through the smoke of Waterloo
David Crane on an old soldier’s account of a 200-year-old battle that will never fade away
A horse ride from Buenos Aires to New York? No problem!
Sam Leith marvels at a lone horseman’s 10,000-mile ride, braving bandits, quicksands, vampire bats and revolution in search of ‘variety’
From Scylax to the Beatles: the West's lust for India
Peter Parker on the age-old allure of the Indian subcontinent
Baghdad's rise, fall – and rise again
Ali A. Allawi on the fluctuating fortunes of Iraq’s fabled capital
The wit, wisdom and womanising of Constant Lambert
Philip Hensher on the tragically short life of the ebullient and multi-talented musician, Constant Lambert
If you ever wanted a Homeric jump-start, this is your book
Adam Nicolson plunges into Homer’s epic poetry and finds it inexhaustible. Sam Leith feels a touch of envy
Look again – the first world war poets weren't pacifists
The patriotism of the Great War’s finest poets was neither narrow nor triumphalist but reflected an intense devotion to an endangered country and to a way of life worth dying for, says David Crane
Jorge Luis Borges and his ‘bitch’
Ian Thomson on a miserable mismatch that became the talk of Buenos Aires in the Sixties
Up close and personal
In recycling his most intimate encounters as fiction – including amazing feats of promiscuity in small-town New England – John Updike drew unashamedly on his own experiences for inspiration, says Philip Hensher
Churchill was as mad as a badger. We should all be thankful
The egotistical Churchill may have viewed the second world war as pure theatre, but that was exactly what was needed at the time, says Sam Leith
Our leaders have betrayed the noble worker. Oh really?
Alan Johnson cannot accept that the best days of the British working class are over
War is good for us
The argument that mankind’s innate violence can only be contained by force of arms may make for a neat paradox, but it fails to convince David Crane
Was Roy Jenkins the greatest prime minister we never had?
Roy Jenkins may have been snobbish and self-indulgent, but he was also a visionary and man of principle who would have made a good prime minister, says Philip Ziegler
Management consultancy! Sculpture park! Sports stadium! The many faces of the Delphic Oracle
Sam Leith finds the most sacred site of Ancient Greece still a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
Lawlessness, corruption, poverty and pollution: the city where we're all headed
India’s vast polluted capital, where brutality, corruption and ruthless self-seeking are endemic, could be the blueprint of the future, says Peter Parker
Kim Philby got away with it because he was posh
Kim Philby’s treachery escaped detection for so long through the stupidity and snobbery of the old-boy network surrounding him, says Philip Hensher
Secrets of Candleford: the real Flora Thompson
Melanie McDonagh on Flora Thompson, whose revealing account of rural Oxfordshire life at the turn of the 19th century became a literary classic
The Artist Formerly Known As Whistler
Sam Leith on the exasperating, charismatic painter who floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee
