Books
Saint Joan and saucy Eve: a single woman split in two
The relationship between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz is memorably captured in Lily Anolik’s red-hot, propulsive portrait of two warring writers who were once close friends
Were the Arctic convoy sacrifices worth it?
Stalin privately admitted that his army could never have triumphed without western aid, and the convoys also indirectly helped the war in the Atlantic – but the loss of life was horrendous
Doppelgangers galore: The Novices of Lerna, by Angel Bonomini, reviewed
A graduate from Argentina, offered a six-month fellowship in Switzerland, is appalled to meet – and have to live with - 24 versions of himself
Reliving the terror of the Bataclan massacre
Emmanuel Carrère knows when to let the horrors speak for themselves in his moving, hard-hitting account of the trial of the perpetrators
Turkish delights: the best of the year’s cookbooks
The vegetarian treats Ozlem Warren offers us from her Turkish kitchen might inspire a bulk-buy of filo pastry. Other recipes from Nigel Slater, Ben Shewry and Jess Elliott Dennison
Freedom fighters of the ‘forgotten continent’
A history of South America’s native heroes includes the Peruvian rebel Tupac Amaro II, the Mapuche of Chile, the escaped slaves of north-eastern Brazil and the ‘great liberator’ Simon Bolivar
Books of the Year II
Contributors include: Peter Parker, Daniel Swift, Stephen Bayley, Justin Marozzi, Andrea Wulf, Hilary Spurling, Boyd Tonkin and Graham Robb
Books of the Year I
Our regular reviewers choose the books they have most enjoyed reading in 2024
From public bar to cocktail bar: books for the discerning drinker
There’s something for all tastes this year, whether poetic meditations on the pub, advice on wines for extended cellaring or recipes for new-wave martinis
Waifs and strays: Gliff, by Ali Smith, reviewed
Two lonely, recalcitrant children, Briar and Rose, find themselves among a bunch of other rag-tag misfits resisting ‘re-education’ by the brutal regime in power
The mystery of Area X: Absolution, by Jeff VanderMeer, reviewed
We are never told the exact location of this highly toxic zone in Florida, but any scientist investigating it has been monstrously affected, either physically or mentally
Truly inspirational: the hospital diary of Hanif Kureishi
‘My world has been smashed...and there is nothing I can do about’, writes Kureishi of the freak accident in 2022 that has left him paralysed. ‘But I will not go under. I will make something of it’
The many passions of Ronald Blythe
Some he kept hidden, such as his affairs with soldiers in the second world war, but his love of nature, literature, naked sunbathing and moonlit bicycling are all well-attested
Out of the depths: Dante’s Purgatorio, by Philip Terry, reviewed
Having toured the infernal campus of the University of Essex, Terry arrives at the coast, to be confronted by a strange artificial mountain which he now must climb
You didn’t mess with them – the doughty matriarchs of the intelligence world
Claire Hubbard-Hall pays tribute to the legions of women who devoted their lives to the British secret service but whose efforts went largely unacknowledged
A geriatric Lord of the Flies: Killing Time, by Alan Bennett, reviewed
Chaos reigns at an old people’s home when Covid strikes, but the more rebellious residents won’t take the situation lying down
All human life – and death – is here: the British parish church
As a skilled stonemason, Andrew Ziminski has dug deep into the fabric of countless churches and can explain every conceivable aspect, from baptismal fonts to gravestones
‘I like it when my pupils run the world’: a celebration of Jeremy Catto
The convivial Oxford don who died in 2018 is remembered by his many devoted students, who include bankers, barristers, diplomats and politicians as well as other distinguished historians
They weren’t all scheming poisoners: the maligned women of imperial Rome
Joan Smith criticises the distortions of Robert Graves in particular, whose villainisation of the empress Livia had no historical basis whatever
Wondrous treasure troves: the Jewish country houses of Europe
Among the greatest collectors was Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, whose furniture, paintings and objets at Waddesdon Manor rivalled those of many museums
Conspiracy theories are as old as witch hunts
To millions of people across America, Hillary Clinton sits atop a global network of satanic child-traffickers and is battling an…
From street urchin to superstar: the unlikely career of Al Pacino
Ellen Barkin, Al Pacino’s lover-cum-prime- suspect in his comeback movie Sea of Love (1989), once dismissed the artifice of the…
An otherworldly London: The Great When, by Alan Moore, reviewed
Is occult knowledge even possible in the age of the internet? If a recondite author obsessed you back in the…
Doctor in trouble: Time of the Child, by Niall Williams, reviewed
In the early 1960s, glimmers of change start to appear in the Irish ‘backwater’ parish of Faha. A smuggled copy…
Why must medieval mysticism be treated as a malady?
Medieval women – they were ‘just like us’. Except that they weren’t. Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife is the first popular…
