Books
The ruthless Romanovs’ horrible history
It’s hard to tell at times who came off worst in Romanov Russia — the tsar or his subjects, says Adam Zamoyski
The Luangwa is far from being a happy valley
Simon Barnes opens with a presumably true idea, that we are all in search of our own versions of paradise…
The new mafias that rule the world
You may not have heard of the Maras. Or Barrio 18. Or the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or the Zatas,…
Sharing the Dog
The Dog share didn’t work out well in the end. For a start, Dog — no mean manipulator — cadged…
For Egypt, a bitter winter has followed the Arab spring
Jack Shenker is a throwback to an older, more romantic age when foreign correspondents were angry, partisan and half-crazed with…
Howard Jacobson's Shylock is full of mercy and compassion
Howard Jacobson’s novelistic riff on The Merchant of Venice for the Hogarth Shakespeare project turns, unsurprisingly, on what makes some…
Cultured — and combative — criticism from America
Four years after his death, it is still faintly surprising to recall that Christopher Hitchens is no longer resident on…
How to avoid being taken for a ride
This book, the blurb warns us, was written by ‘an established voice in popular psychology, with a regular column on…
Siftings
And we awake like children to tiny snow sprinkled on shed and car roofs, thinking, Will it last, will it…
The dreadful (and unnatural) toll of freediving
In principle, freediving is simple and perilous: divers take one breath, then dive as deep as they can, with no…
Carly Simon: funniest, most sexually blunt star of her generation
I usually dread the final 15 minutes of a celebrity interview: the awkward section during which the writer must steer…
Liars, stalkers and snipers populate in the latest crime novels
We fully expect con artists to be caught in a sting themselves, but even with that thought constantly in mind…
Kerr’s curse
Here it is, yet another book on the Dismissal. The fall of Gough Whitlam in 1975 has created quite a…
Sharing the Dog
The Dog share didn’t work out well in the end. For a start, Dog — no mean manipulator — cadged…
Siftings
And we awake like children to tiny snow sprinkled on shed and car roofs, thinking, Will it last, will it…
Sharing the Dog
The Dog share didn’t work out well in the end. For a start, Dog — no mean manipulator — cadged…
Siftings
And we awake like children to tiny snow sprinkled on shed and car roofs, thinking, Will it last, will it…
The Holy Roman Empire has been much maligned
The Holy Roman Empire has been much maligned over the centuries. In fact it worked remarkably well, says Jonathan Steinberg
The tortured genius of Shostakovich
When I look at the black-and-white photograph of Julian Barnes on the flap of his latest book, the voice of…
Tracking the great Siberian tiger
Of all charismatic animals, tigers are surely the most filmed, televised, documented, noisily cherished and, paradoxically, the most persecuted on…
Diana Athill finally accepts ‘Old Woman’ status, aged 98
There’s something reassuring about 98-year-old Diana Athill. She’s stately and well-ordered, like the gardens at Ditchingham Hall in Norfolk, her…
In and out of the drink
‘If I were to go mad,’ Amy Liptrot writes in her memoir of alcoholism and the Orkneys, ‘It would come…
Drawing blood with pen and ink
Molly Crabapple is an American artist and Drawing Blood is the story of her life. That life has only been…
Girl about town — on a bicycle
The old ditty got it wrong: it should have been ‘Maybe it’s because I’m not a Londoner that I love…
John Irving spoilt my Christmas
This novel, John Irving’s 14th, took the sheen off my Christmas, and here are the reasons. The comments on…
