More from Books

How the Romans set an example of good business practice

7 January 2023 9:00 am

Ever since the societas publicanorum, corporations have been linked with the common good, carrying out projects for which the state is ill-equipped

Spot the book title

17 December 2022 9:00 am

For answers, click here The post Spot the book title appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join…

Empress Eugénie’s shrine to the Bonapartes

17 December 2022 9:00 am

The empress Eugénie – the Spanish-born last empress-consort of France, wife of Napoleon III, mother of the prince imperial –…

Whoever persuaded Bono he could sing?

17 December 2022 9:00 am

There are a few pop stars whose work I can’t help liking in spite of myself – their song-writing, that…

A courtier’s lot: writing to prime ministers one minute, acting as nanny the next

17 December 2022 9:00 am

Apart from when the government has been self-immolating, the royal family has dominated the news recently: the passing of Queen…

Meghan and Harry have never grasped the notion of ‘only connect’

17 December 2022 9:00 am

In June 2017 Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, was surprised when Jane Sarkin, his features editor, told him…

Robert Lowell struggled all his life to elude his rarefied Boston heritage

17 December 2022 9:00 am

The American poet Robert Lowell (1917-77) was a so-called ‘Boston Brahmin’, a Lowell of Boston, where, in the widely known…

Miller’s thumb and Mother-in-law’s garotte: the marvellous lexicon of angling

17 December 2022 9:00 am

Despite its many centuries of popularity – enthusiasts have ranged from Cleopatra to Eric Clapton – angling has been the…

The utter vileness of Richard Harris

17 December 2022 9:00 am

Brawling, boozing and womanising, those vaunted hell-raisers of the 1960s – Peter O’Toole, Oliver Reed, Richard Burton and, of course,…

David Dimbleby turns out to be a bit of a closet republican

17 December 2022 9:00 am

In Keep Talking, David Dimbleby takes us through a gentle romp of a stellar, unrivalled broadcasting career spanning, incredibly, 70…

The house in Ghent haunted by Hitler

10 December 2022 9:00 am

Stefan Hertmans is dismayed to discover that his home was once owned by a Flemish collaborator with the SS

Eliot’s ‘wretched old’ typewriter looms large in an analysis of The Waste Land

10 December 2022 9:00 am

But does Matthew Hollis understand the poem as well he understands the manual action of a Corona?

How the West misunderstood Russia’s military capabilities 

10 December 2022 9:00 am

Putin’s new army looked lean and mean, but old, inherent weaknesses persisted: over-rigid commanders, demoralised soldiers and shaky logistics

The year’s best children’s books, featuring animals real and imaginary

10 December 2022 9:00 am

There are wolves, bats, 101 dogs and Maggie O’Farrell’s Nouka – an adorable black ball of fluff with big green eyes

Emma Dent Coad’s ‘love letter to Kensington’ is nothing of the sort

10 December 2022 9:00 am

Her attack on the council’s record under Conservative leadership betrays her failure to grasp the fundamentals of local government finance

The secrets of a master art forger

10 December 2022 9:00 am

Tony Tetro fooled many connoisseurs with his canvases – aged by mixing coffee and cigarette butts or baking them in a pizza oven

Shirley Hazzard – so in love with Italy she spoke in arias

3 December 2022 9:00 am

Hazzard’s spiritual awakening on reading Leopardi’s poems and first seeing the Bay of Naples led to a lifelong passion for her adopted country

The world’s best wrecks and ruins

3 December 2022 9:00 am

Oliver Smith takes us on a tour of train graveyards, bunkers, ghost towns, crumbling palaces – and a 7,000-bedroom hotel in North Korea that never even opened

Neo-gothic horror: Strega, by Johanne Lykke Holm

3 December 2022 9:00 am

A teenage maid goes missing after a party of men arrive at a lonely alpine hotel for a sinister carnival feast

The courage of the Red Devils

3 December 2022 9:00 am

Mark Urban describes the remarkable feats of the parachute regiment created under Churchill’s orders in June 1940 to rival the Fallschirmjäger

A choice of art books – from Carpaccio to David Hockney

3 December 2022 9:00 am

Other artists include James Gillray, Quentin Blake, Lucian Freud – and those inspired over the centuries by an overlooked subject in art history: the egg

A dangerous gift: The Weather Woman, by Sally Gardner, reviewed

3 December 2022 9:00 am

Spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, Gardner’s novel tells the story of young Neva, whose ability to predict the weather nearly ruins her

Celebrity photographer and conservationist: Peter Beard’s life of extremes

3 December 2022 9:00 am

The New York socialite devoted much of his time to saving wild life in Kenya – though a new biography ignores some of his less reputable views