Lead book review

Ladies’ man: Tom Stoppard’s love life revealed

26 September 2020 9:00 am

Tom Stoppard is a non-stop genius of jokes – but many of them make his latest biographer uneasy, says Craig Raine

City of dazzling mosaics: the golden age of Ravenna

19 September 2020 9:00 am

Ian Thomson describes Ravenna’s golden age, when classical Rome, Byzantium and Christianity met

Hitler’s admiration has severely damaged Wagner’s reputation

12 September 2020 9:00 am

Wagner gripped the communal mind for decades after his death. Philip Hensher examines his enduring influence

The paradox of Graham Greene – searching for peace in the world’s warzones

5 September 2020 9:00 am

Graham Greene was constantly searching for peace of mind along with escapist thrills, says Nicholas Shakespeare

Toussaint Louverture: the true hero of Haiti

29 August 2020 9:00 am

Toussaint Louverture’s ‘crazy dream’ for Haiti has still to be realised, says Amy Wilentz

Sport, for the English, has always been a defiant assertion of liberty

22 August 2020 9:00 am

The history of English sport reflects a defiant people determined to protect their ancient prerogatives, says Alex Massie

The Big Tech firms are dividing the world between them

15 August 2020 9:00 am

Cory Doctorow on the vast, impersonal forces manipulating our lives

The heroic couple who defied Hitler

8 August 2020 9:00 am

Philippe Sands on the heroic couple who defied Hitler and paid the ultimate price

Will the universe end with a bang or a bounce?

1 August 2020 9:00 am

Alexander Masters speculates on how the universe will end

We should learn to love sharks, not demonise them

25 July 2020 9:00 am

Sharks may inspire fear and loathing, but we are the crueller predators, says Philip Hoare

Where are the scents of yesterday? Entire countries have lost their distinctive smell

18 July 2020 9:00 am

Michael Bywater wonders why the existence of smell still seems such a guilty secret

How far can we trust the men in lab coats?

11 July 2020 9:00 am

Research has always been susceptible to fraud, but regulations are now much tighter than they were, says David Wootton

It was Bevin, not Bevan, who was the real national treasure

4 July 2020 9:00 am

Alan Johnson pays tribute to Ernest Bevin, a towering political figure too often forgotten

How do we greet one another today?

27 June 2020 9:00 am

Conversation is a fascinating subject, says Philip Hensher – but very few people get it right

Splashing the cash at VIP nightclubs is now the favourite recreation of the rich

20 June 2020 9:00 am

The spectacular extravagance of the VIP nightclub ‘experience’ could be the last bonfire of the vanities, says Lynn Barber

The history of Thebes is as mysterious as its Sphinx

13 June 2020 9:00 am

The Spartans were not the only Greeks to die at Thermopylae. On the fateful final morning of the battle, when…

The many rival identities of Charles Dickens

6 June 2020 9:00 am

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst explores the many rival identities of Charles Dickens

How kind is humankind?

30 May 2020 9:00 am

Are humans by nature really more puppy than wolf? Oren Harman tests the science

Where did birds first learn to sing?

23 May 2020 9:00 am

Fieldwork can move the most rigorous scientist to lyricism, as Mark Cocker discovers

The genuine polymath is still one in a million

16 May 2020 9:00 am

With unlimited information just a click away, everyone can pass as a polymath today, says Philip Hensher

A ‘loneliness pandemic’ could prove as dangerous as coronavirus

9 May 2020 9:00 am

Adrian Woolfson explains the essence of pandemics – and how we can expect many more of them

From ‘divine Caesar’ to Hitler’s lapdog – the rise and fall of Benito Mussolini

2 May 2020 9:00 am

Mussolini dreamed of a new Roman empire and dominion over the Mediterranean. Two decades later he was hanging by his feet in a public square, as Ian Thomson relates

Moscow rules in London: how Putin’s agents corrupted the British elite

25 April 2020 9:00 am

Putin’s corrupt cronies may change, but the paranoid world view they all share remains the same, says Owen Matthews

The cult of Sappho in interwar Paris

18 April 2020 9:00 am

Philip Hensher describes how Paris became a magnet for literary-minded lesbians in the early 20th century – where they soon caused quite a stir

Excess and incest were meat and drink to the Byrons

11 April 2020 9:00 am

Excess, incest and marital misery were in the blood. Frances Wilson uncovers several generations of infamous Byrons