Books
Fishy women: the mermaid in folklore, art and literature
The first mermaid we meet in this intriguing, gorgeously produced book is spray-painted in scarlet on a wall in Madrid,…
Has A.N. Wilson reached the last port of call on the tempestuous sea of faith?
A.N. Wilson has had a tempestuous journey on the sea of faith. His first port of call was St Stephen’s…
Dennis Potter: one of the last great masters of vituperation
‘Genuine invective is an almost lost art in our wild satirical age,’ Dennis Potter complained in New Society in 1966.…
Where are the green silk blinds of the once luxurious Metropolitan Line?
Most current writers on railways don’t want to appear at all romantic lest they be shunted into the ‘trainspotter’ siding.…
Books and arts opener
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Epitaph for a Star
A chance in a million: he was perfectly cast In the role of his own life, though he almost flipped…
Epitaph for a Star
A chance in a million: he was perfectly cast In the role of his own life, though he almost flipped…
The sadist who wrecked New York, and the last of the great biographers
John R. MacArthur on the bureaucratic titan who gratuitously bulldozed a great city and displaced and demoralised half a million of its inhabitants
The boy who rebuilt the sun on earth
In 2008, when Taylor Wilson was 14, he created a working nuclear fusion reactor, ‘a miniature sun on earth’. At…
Copyright: the great rock’n’roll swindle
For a music fan, the quiz question, ‘Who wrote “This Land is Your Land”?’ might seem laughably easy. Yet if…
The end of the world: an illustrated guide
At the heart of the eschatological ideology of the Islamic State is the belief that when the world ends (and…
Hirohito, MacArthur and other villains
The history of ‘great events’, Voltaire wrote, is ‘hardly more than the history of crimes’. Physically, the war in Asia…
Wrangles over the Rust Belt
In the opening sentence of this subtle and finely poised novel, the narrator, Greg Marnier, known as ‘Marny’, admits that…
The fast, furious life of Max Mosley
Max Mosley’s autobiography has been much anticipated: by the motor racing world, by the writers and readers of tabloid newspapers,…
The weather: a very British obsession
As I got into a Brighton taxi this morning, my driver’s first words were ‘apparently it’ll clear in a couple…
Pricking the pomp of American society
It doesn’t mean much to say that Renata Adler’s journalism isn’t as interesting as her novels — almost nothing is…
The definitive literary guide to mixed martial arts
This is the best book you’ll ever read about mixed martial arts fighting; and this will still be the case…
Cold-blooded
An unidentified lizard, the same size as a Grecian stick, the colour of dirtied sand, holds the dissolving power of…
Books and arts opener
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Cold-blooded
An unidentified lizard, the same size as a Grecian stick, the colour of dirtied sand, holds the dissolving power of…
Cold-blooded
An unidentified lizard, the same size as a Grecian stick, the colour of dirtied sand, holds the dissolving power of…
Good stories of bad Bloomsbury behaviour
Even the Group considered Bunny Garnett and Henrietta Bingham quite ‘wayward’. Their powerful charms appealed to both sexes, says Anne Chisholm — and they even managed a fling together
Was Genghis Khan the cruellest man who ever lived?
From the unpromising and desperately unforgiving background that forged his iron will and boundless ambition, Temujin (as Genghis Khan was…
From conspiracy to childhood secrets: a choice of recent crime fiction
The act of reading always involves identification: with the story, the characters, the author’s intentions. Renée Knight takes this concept…
A Victorian sailor is the new love of my life
Jenny Balfour Paul is an indigo dye expert. She has written two books on the subject, and lectures around the…
