Books
Rodolfo González Alcántara is lord of the dance
‘Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough,’ said Gustave Flaubert. He might have been talking about this…
‘Russia’s Mississippi’ — or China’s — just keeps rolling along
In 2014, Beijing and Moscow signed a US$400 billion deal to deliver Russian gas to Chinese consumers. Construction of the…
Sins of the past haunt the latest crime fiction
It’s often the case that present-day crimes have their roots in the past. Ian Rankin’s Even Dogs in the Wild…
The confessions of Gerard Manley Hopkins
‘I am 12 miles from a lemon,’ lamented that bon vivant clergyman Sydney Smith on reaching one country posting. He…
György Spiro’s Captivity fails to captivate Tibor Fischer
It’s been a long time coming for György Spiró. However much Hungarian writers complain about the isolation forced upon them…
America’s greatest magazine — at its greatest
The New Yorker has always been revered for the supreme quality of its writing, says Philip Hensher
From dressing-gown drudge to Man Booker winner
John Gross’s The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters: English Literary Life since 1800, a standard text for…
David Pryce-Jones settles old scores
The geological title of this unhappy memoir is an apt metaphor for fissures in the relationships between individuals of David…
Velázquez’s vanishing act
This is an extraordinary story. In 1845 John Snare, an unremarkable Reading bookseller, goes to an auction in a defunct…
Smartphones for Hamlet and Heathcliff
Medea says ‘hiiiiiiii’ on the first page of Mallory Ortberg’s hilarious book, which puts smartphones in the hands of literary…
Robert Nairac: brave to a fault
Captain Robert Nairac was a Grenadier Guards officer serving in Northern Ireland when on 14 May 1977 he was abducted…
Take up and read Augustine’s Confessions
I usually throw away dust jackets but Robin Lane Fox chose his for a reason. He originally encountered Augustine of…
Is the Slender-billed curlew already extinct?
This unusual book is beautifully written, produced and illustrated, but its subject — the small Slender-billed curlew — is strangely…
Misprint
Stealth is its policy. It lies in wait. It is no respecter of age. It turns up late Or far…
Misprint
Stealth is its policy. It lies in wait. It is no respecter of age. It turns up late Or far…
Misprint
Stealth is its policy. It lies in wait. It is no respecter of age. It turns up late Or far…
Hide and seek with T.S. Eliot
Not only is this the definitive edition of T.S. Eliot’s poems, it is also the best biography of the poet we have, says Daniel Swift
Brian Hodgson finds his vocation in Kathmandu
It started as a ‘shoke’ — the Anglo-Indian slang word for ‘hobby’. Bored and lonely in Kathmandu, the young Assistant…
Paul Theroux returns home — to guns and evangelism
During the first ten pages of this long work Paul Theroux, on a journey through the American South, meets two…
Christmas-themed books — for children and adults
There’s a moment in a child’s life where Christmas begins to lose its magic. Once lost it cannot be regained,…
Nessie’s enduring attraction
It wasn’t until I drove past Loch Ness a couple of years ago that I realised just how enormous it…
Clothes to die for
People tend to use the term ‘fashion victim’ somewhat damningly — and maybe jealously — to describe someone obsessed by…
Oliver Sacks bids farewell in style
‘I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not…
All Change
Based on a handwritten notebook of recipes from Dorothy Eliza Barnes, my grandmother, a shepherd’s wife, who had worked as…
A journey through magic across three millennia
With the briefest of introductions to each chapter, it is up to the reader to decide how they want to…
