Books
Kathmandu — or don’t
Although Nepal’s earthquake last April visited our television screens with images of seismic devastation, the disaster has probably had little…
Losers in the game of life
Mysteries abound here — enigmas of identity and betrayal, long-buried secret transactions leading to quests — for a lost child,…
Out of time and harsh: the historical treatment of the female composer
Just a few weeks ago, Germany’s VAN magazine published an interview with the composer Olga Neuwirth. In it she describes…
The hip-hop intellectual from inner-city Baltimore
The author of the bestseller Between the World and Me and recipient of a MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ last year, Ta-Nehisi…
Emil Zátopek: a legend from athletics’ golden age of innocence
The story of the Czechoslovak runner Emil Zátopek is a tale from athletics’ age of innocence. Without the aid of…
A love letter to all great dictionaries
Asked to name a reference book, you may well choose the Encyclopaedia Britannica or the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary. But…
Existentialism and taboo sex scream of youth trying too hard
How many debut collections does it take to stand up to one of the most accomplished short-story writers of the…
Oliver Goldsmith: the most fascinating bore in literature
On 10 April 1772, the biographer James Boswell recorded in his diary that he had hugged himself with pleasure on…
Books and arts opener
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The sentimental socialist
Having done something similar myself, I wondered how Bill Shorten would handle the challenge of a campaign biography. My book,…
Why we love unfinished art
An unfinished painting can provide a startling glimpse of the artist at work. But the common tendency to prefer it to a finished work is being taken to extremes, says Philip Hensher
The Wicked Boy is finally redeemed
During the heatwave in the summer of 1895, the Gentlemen v. Players match at Lords Cricket Ground on 8 July…
Across the river... and into the trees
Water accounts for 70 per cent of your planet, and 60 per cent of your body. Yet when do you…
What dogs are really up to
Before I read this book, I thought I knew what a dog was. It barks, it wags its tail, it…
A real-life Tristram Shandy – found in a skip
Most modern biographers feed off celebrity like vampires let loose in a blood bank. That is why their books sell:…
Making Nietzsche New
Had you been down at Naumburg barracks early in March 1867, you might have seen a figure take a running…
Chairman Mao devours his foes
Frank Dikötter, professor of humanities at the University of Hong Kong and winner of the Samuel Johnson prize in 2011,…
The shocks and shells of the Somme
In the final months of 1914, medical officers on the Western Front began seeing a new kind of casualty. Soldiers…
The race from the Big C to the Big D
The ‘journey’ — at least the one played out in public — begins with an announcement that you are incurable.…
Training the horse from hell
There were moments while reading this sprawling, ambitious novel when I thought I was reading a masterpiece. But at other…
William Shakespeare: all things to all men
The best new books celebrating Shakespeare’s centenary are full of enthusiasm and insight — but none plucks out the heart of his mystery, says Daniel Swift
O, vengeance! Why, what an ass am I!
Given this year’s 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, there was always going to be a slew of new publications; few,…
Sex, violence and anticlimax in 16 (very short) chapters
‘Now I am a mother and a married woman, but not long ago I led a life of crime,’ begins…
A Tokyo police procedural with a brilliant twist
The plot of Hideo Yokoyama’s Six Four begins in 1989, with the murder of Shoko, a seven-year-old girl. Fourteen years…
Which came first — the bowerbird or the egg?
What is it about birds? They are the wild creatures we see most often, their doings and calls a daily…
