Books
The assassination of Georgi Markov bore all the hallmarks of a Russian wet job
The Bulgarian dissident sailed too close to the wind with his revelations about Tudor Zhivkov in 1978, provoking the dictator to enlist Russian help in eliminating him
A tale of impossible love: The End of Drum Time, by Hanna Pylväinen, reviewed
A 19th-century missionary’s daughter falls for a Sami herdsman and flees with him to the tundra – only to find that, as an incomer, she will always be cold-shouldered
Portrait of an artistic provocateur: Blue Ruin, by Hari Kunzru, reviewed
A once fashionable YBA now scraping a living in America meets old friends by chance, prompting a deep dive into memory
Islands of inspiration: a poet’s life on Shetland
Jen Hadfield is not only spellbound by the moods of the ocean and the hectic weather but by the Shaetlan dialect itself – which ‘struck me immediately as a poetic language’
Unless the Treasury is tamed, there’s no solution to Britain’s problems
Two left-wing political analysts seek to bury the whole economic approach taken by the Conservatives since 2010 – or perhaps even 1979
A brief glimpse of secretive Myanmar
Taking advantage of a relatively open period after the 2015 election, Claire Hammond explored the country’s interior through its complex, unofficial railway network
A sea of troubles: The Coast Road, by Alan Murrin, reviewed
The sudden return of the liberated Colette Crowley to the Donegal fishing village of Ardglas stirs fear and resentment in the closed community
Pure Puccini: an opera lover’s melodramatic family history
Flamboyant theatrics were part of Michael Volpe’s life as CEO of Opera Holland Park. But those of his feuding Italian relatives rival anything seen on stage
Afrikaner angst: Cato Pedder goes in search of her ancestors
As a descendant of Jan Smuts, Pedder is Afrikaner aristocracy. But she finds the legacy increasingly problematic while researching the lives of her female forebears
Runaway lovers: The Heart in Winter, by Kevin Barry, reviewed
In 19th-century Butte, Montana, a reluctant new bride falls in love with the young man sent to photograph her – leading to violent retribution for the doomed couple
The atmosphere of a historic country house cannot be bought
Paintings, books and treasures collected by the same family over centuries give a historical depth that no modern plutocrat can recreate
No Sir Lancelot: A Good Deliverance, by Toby Clements, reviewed
Imprisoned in Newgate, Sir Thomas Malory spins wondrous tales of his ‘gentle acts of valour’ to the jailor’s son. And who cares whether they are true or not?
One damned thing after another: Britain’s crisis-ridden century so far
The Iraq war, the financial crisis, Brexit and Covid have seen many prime ministers blown off course. Will Keir Starmer be any luckier than his predecessors?
AI is both liberating and enslaving us
It is becoming more than a useful tool, fears Neil Lawrence. As it takes over most of our work, we grow less and less efficient at doing what remains
Cold War spying had much in common with the colonial era
Influenced by Kipling’s Kim, early CIA officers combined a love of overseas adventure with a whiff of imperial paranoia, says Hugh Wilford
Shalom Auslander vents his disgust – on his ‘grotesque, vile, foul, ignominious self’
Long derided as ‘feh’ by his Orthodox parents, the American writer admits to being his own hanging judge
An insight into the American Dream: Table for Two, by Amor Towles, reviewed
Recent short stories and a novella all feature protagonists in pursuit of an ambition that puts them in varying degrees of peril
The pleasure of reliving foreign travel through food
Russian hand pies, Polish chlodnik, Turkish fruit compote and a Latvian trifle are among the many dishes recreated in Edinburgh by the globetrotting Caroline Eden
What will we do when all our jobs are done for us?
The philosopher Nick Bostrom speculates imaginatively about the travails of extreme leisure, but we don’t get any guru-like nuggets
When it comes to krautrock, it’s impossible not to mention the war
The wild and wonderful music that exploded from West Germany in the 1970s stemmed from a young generation’s determination to escape the trauma of the Nazi past
The roots of anti-Semitism in Europe
The original blood libel, which materialised after the First Crusade in the 11th century, proved a turning point for Jews, as a wave of religious frenzy swept communities away
Distrust and resentment have plagued Anglo-Russian relations for centuries
On a visit to England in 1556, Ivan the Terrible’s envoy alienated Londoners with his extreme suspicions – and lurid insults have been exchanged ever since
Citizens of nowhere: This Strange Eventful History, by Claire Messud, reviewed
A fictionalised version of Messud’s recent family history traces the many moves of three generations forced into exile from Algeria
Paris is perhaps the greatest character in Balzac’s Human Comedy
The drama of the street is a constant theme, though Balzac himself took most pleasure in the city’s ‘gloomy passages and silent cul-de-sacs between midnight and two in the morning’
If only Britain knew how it was viewed abroad
22 June 2024 9:00 am
If the country were a person, it would need its friends to sit it down and deliver it a few home truths about its damaging behaviour to itself and others, says Michael Peel