Books
Heroism in a hopeless cause: why the crusades remain fascinating
The crusades are part of everyone’s mental image of the Middle Ages. They extended, in one form or another, from…
Mystery in the Sundarbans: Gun Island, by Amitav Ghosh, reviewed
Meet Deen Datta, a nervous, practical and cautious man, born and brought up in Calcutta, who now lives in Brooklyn,…
Naomi Wolf is holed below the waterline
What is it about Naomi Wolf that inspires such venom? Perhaps that she’s American, brash, media-savvy and not averse to…
Searching for Coco on the Côte d’Azur
Anne de Courcy, an escapee from tabloid journalism, has become a polished historian of British high society in the 20th…
Gunning for Narendra Modi
K.S. Komireddi sets out to establish his secular credentials before he sets up his primary argument: which is that India’s…
Is one of history’s most rousing speeches apocryphal?
As rousing death-and-glory speeches go, it is one of the best. With a besieging Roman army only hours from storming…
Has Daisy Dunn chosen the wrong Pliny to write about?
I couldn’t help thinking, as I read this book, of an old story, vaguely recalled from English A-level classes, about…
The great anti-hero of our time: Diary of a Somebody, by Brian Bilston, reviewed
Brian Bilston’s life is summed up perfectly by the incident with his neighbour’s dog. The annoying Mrs McNulty comes round…
The rollicking adventures of a real-life female sleuth
Susannah Stapleton’s erudite but hugely entertaining debut is a true-life detective story about the quest for a true-life detective. A…
As long as poverty and maritime trade exist, so will piracy
Western attitudes to piracy have dripped with hubris. In his classic history of 1932, Philip Gosse confidently argued that European…
Moby — from teetotal vegan to promiscuous party monster
In 2002 I flew to New York to interview the dance music producer whose 1999 release Play remains the bestselling…
Hostility to Islam has disguised a host of other prejudices
In 2011, when the editor of Charlie Hebdo put Muhammad on the cover, he did so as the heir to…
Does a stick insect count as a pet?
What is it that distinguishes humans from other animals? The default answer nowadays is tediously misanthropic, but a more interesting…
Joy Division was an all too short-lived joy
Once upon a time there was the arche-typal Manchester band — half of which came from Macclesfield, in leafy Cheshire,…
Midlife crisis in Montana
For Joanna Pocock, a midlife crisis is the moment in which ‘bored of the rhythm of our days, whatever those…
Alma Mahler — maddening, mesmerising or plain malicious?
It must be rare for a popular song to have such a lasting influence on a posthumous reputation. However, this…
Washed-up in LA: This Storm, by James Ellroy, reviewed
When James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential appeared in 1990, it introduced us to a world of blatant corruption, casual racism and…
Nights at the Lyceum: Shadowplay, by Joseph O’Connor, reviewed
‘I am very, very pleased,’ murmured Queen Victoria in 1895, when she dubbed Henry Irving, Britain’s first theatrical knight. He…
The wildest waters in the world
‘Below the Forties there is no law, and below the Fifties there is no God.’ Most sailors know some version…
From the Odyssey to Njals Saga: a voyage round the great myths
Six remarkable stories shape this book. Tracing the trajectories of the Odyssey to the Icelandic Njals Saga, via the Kosovo…
My agonising vigil over my twins’ fight for life
Memoirs about giving birth, a subject once shrouded in mystery, have become so popular that another may seem otiose. We…
Lusting after Bathsheba: Lux, by Elizabeth Cook, reviewed
The novel is a wonderfully commodious creature. One might wish they made trousers like it, for it can stretch or…
Toy theatres on the stage: the set designs of Maurice Sendak
I must have seen hundreds of opera productions in my time. Out of these, hardly any made a lasting impression…
Moon walks with the Romantic poets
Several years ago, I was interviewing the garden writer and designer Sarah Raven at her home in Sussex when a…
Gen Xers v. Millennials: White, by Bret Easton Ellis, reviewed
Q: What’s worse than listening to someone ranting hysterically about Donald Trump? A: Listening to Bret Easton Ellis ranting hysterically…
