Books
Haunted by the past
Mr Wilder & Me is not in any way a state- of-the-nation novel — and thank goodness. Brilliant as Jonathan…
Secret understanding
John le Carré once wrote sadly that he felt ‘shifty’ about his contribution to the glamorisation of the spying business.…
Origins of the termini
I began this book waiting for a diesel train to Derby, under the windy, boxy, flat-roofed bit which one of…
Style over substance
In 2006 the director Christopher Nolan filmed an adaptation of one of my novels, written a decade and a half…
A fiasco from the start
In carefree days which now seem so distant we used occasionally to take the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry. Docking after a long…
Cut out and keep
William Burroughs was introduced to a British readership in November 1963, and the welcome he received was ‘UGH…’ The headline…
From hard tack to trifle
Prue Leith traces the biscuit’s surprisingly colourful history
A tissue of lies
Kiss Myself Goodbye. It sounds a bit like a William Boyd novel. It looks likea William Boyd novel, too: the…
Battered old bear
The Prime Minister may have lost his bounce –but perhaps that’s no bad thing, says Lynn Barber
The gospel of separation
In late April 1962 Los Angeles police shot and killed an unarmed black man, Ronald X Stokes, during a disturbance…
Born in the saddle
The appeal of a book called Horse Crazy risks being limited to those who are. Yet many moments in Sarah…
A race against time
In 1835 the first two Egyptian antiquities were registered in the British Museum: a pair of red granite lions from…
Tabula rasa
Elaborated over a writing career that spans half a century — a career crowned with every honour save the Nobel…
A winning team
Eighty years ago this summer Britain was facing its greatest moment of peril as Göring’s Luftwaffe attacked airfields, cities and…
A masterpiece of modern manners
Of all the successful modern female writers documenting their search for love, none has been as endearing as Dolly Alderton.…
The staff of life
In the seventh and final chapter of this small but lingeringly powerful book, the author reveals his motivation for writing…
Slavic adoration
If you want to see the very best of Gauguin and Matisse, go east. That was the case in 1914…
The mystique has gone
So upsetting it would have been, for those of us who rate Lee Child’s Jack Reacher thrillers so highly, if…
Portrait of the piss artist as a young man
Being the son of the revered John Olsen has often been intriguing, and sometimes difficult. Olsen, 92, is arguably Australia’s…
A friend in need
What Are You Going Through is both brilliant and mercifully brief. Weighing in at 200-odd pages, it can be read…
A fatal clash of civilisations
Many books claim to describe junctures that changed the world but few examine ones as consequential as Conquistadores: A New…
Figures in a landscape
Some of my happiest fiction-reading hours have been spent in the company of Kevin Barry: two short-story collections, both prize-winners,…
Satisfaction all round
In his latest book, the veteran pop commentator David Hepworth is concerned with satisfaction, its acquisition and maintenance. On record,…
The imitation game
Closely inspect No. 23 Leinster Terrace, Bayswater and you might notice the house has no letter box. Push at the…
Three Girl Fridays
From Downing Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, history’s powerful inter-family influencers, whether spouses or children, have long operated behind weighty political…
