More from Books
Were the Ottoman Turks as European as they thought themselves?
This is the best of times to be writing history, since so much of what has been taken for granted,…
More penny dreadful than Dickensian: Lily, by Rose Tremain, reviewed
Rose Tremain’s 15th novel begins with a favoured schmaltzy image of high Victoriana: it is a night (if not dark…
The true superhero is Douglas Wolk – who has read through 27,000 Marvel comics
In March 1963, the Fantastic Four had a fractious encounter with Spider-Man and a dust-up with the Hulk — a…
Elephants walk on tiptoes — but can they dance? This year’s stocking-fillers explore such puzzles
It’s almost a shock to admit it, but this year’s gift books aren’t bad at all. It’s even possible that,…
It’s a wonder any of our great country houses survived the 20th century
One of Adrian Tinniswood’s recent books, The Long Weekend, is a portrait of country house life in the interwar years.…
Satire misfires: Our Country Friends, by Gary Shteyngart, reviewed
It is, as you’ve possibly noticed, a tricky time for old-school American liberals, now caught between increasingly extreme versions of…
Rationality is like a muscle that needs constant flexing
In the 1964 film My Fair Lady after Colonel Pickering has secured the help of an old friend to pull…
The slippery stuff of slime: should we loathe it so much?
As humans, we are supposed to have an aversion to slime. It should repel us. Objects and organisms that might…
Defying the tech giants: The Every, by Dave Eggers, reviewed
Those for whom Dave Eggers’s name evokes only his much praised memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000) may…
The art of seizing the moment in photographic portraiture
A Tatler photographer once told me that the secret to taking a good photo was the three Ts: tum, tits,…
Bernardine Evaristo sets a rousing example of ‘never giving up’
Bernardine Evaristo’s Manifesto — part instructional guide for artists, part call to arms for equality, part literary memoir —shimmers with…
Earthly paradises: the best of the year’s gardening books
Important historic gardens fall into two main categories: those made by one person, whose vision has been carefully preserved down…
The nearest thing to Paul McCartney’s autobiography: his guide to the Beatles’ songbook
Whatever your favourite theory of creativity, Paul McCartney has a cheery thumbs-up to offer. You think the secret is putting…
Far from being our dullest king, George V was full of surprises
‘Victorian’ stuck, and ‘Edwardian’ too. But ‘Georgian’, as an adjective associated with the next monarch in line, never caught on.…
Even the greatest tennis players need to be adored
Louis MacNeice once wrote that if you want to know what chasing the Grail is like, ask Lancelot not Galahad.…
A wife for King Lear — J.R. Thorp imagines another Lady Macbeth
Shakespeare wastes no time on Lear’s backstory; we meet the brutal old autocrat as he divides his kingdom between two…
Dark days in the Balkans: life under Enver Hoxha and beyond
For many in the West, Albania remains as remote and shadowy as the fictional Syldavia of the Tintin comics. The…
What motivates Peter Thiel apart from the desire for more wealth?
If you’ve only heard one thing about Peter Thiel (and many have heard nothing at all) it is that he…
Can the fiasco of the Dieppe Raid really be excused?
In my mother’s final days we had a long conversation about the second world war. I asked if she’d ever…
Love in a cold climate: Snow Country, by Sebastian Faulks, reviewed
In the months before the outbreak of the first world war, Anton Heideck arrives in Vienna. Family life offered him…
The Great God Pan is all things to all men
Pan’s name is thought to derive from ‘paean’, the ancient Greek verb meaning ‘to pasture’. His half-man, half-goat form reflected…
Homage to the greatest 18th-century poet you’ve never heard of
If you were to glance only briefly at the title of the Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s prose debut you…
Henry VIII’s windfall from the monasteries was shockingly short-term
In 1536 there were 850 monastic houses in England and Wales; just four years later they were all gone. The…
Celebrating Tony Wilson, the founder of Factory Records
To many people Tony Wilson was a bigmouth Mancunian, brash music impresario and jobbing television presenter. But to the generation…
It’s time female fraudsters received their due
If you’re after jewel thieves, bank robbers and gold smugglers, look no further than Caitlin Davies’s Queens of the Underworld.…
