Books
Answers to ‘Spot the Booker Prize Winners’
1. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2002) 2. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan (1998) 3. The Sea, The Sea by…
Answers to ‘Spot the Booker Prize Winners’
1. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2002) 2. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan (1998) 3. The Sea, The Sea by…
Roll up, roll up! A history of the circus from Ancient Egypt to the present
Nell Gifford joins a colourful troupe of acrobats, contortionists, lion-tamers, freaks and funambulists
The quirkiest garden book Roy Strong has read in years
Incredulity is rarely a word that crosses my mind when it comes to garden writing. This genre can, of course,…
Seamus Heaney: no shuffling or cutting — just turning over aces
The impersonator — Rory Bremner, Steve Coogan — speaks, in different voices, to a single primitive pleasure centre in his…
After the trilogy (and the hurricane): the likeable return of Frank Bascombe
The story of Frank Bascombe, a sports-writer turned estate agent but always a New Jersey homebody, has already taken Richard…
Wonder Woman: feminist symbol or the ultimate male fantasy?
It’s always interesting when people succeed in two different arenas — like Mike Nesmith’s mum, who gave the world both…
Cambridge, showcase for modernism (and how costly it is to fix)
The Pevsner architectural guides are around halfway through their revisions — though it is like the Forth Bridge, and soon…
A treasure-trove of grisly Arab tales may appeal more to an Isis fighter than your average British reader
The marvellous tales of the title are not just confined to the contents of this book, for the travels and…
Sunset Hails a Rising
O lente, lente currite noctis equi! — Marlowe, after Ovid. La mer, la mer, toujours recommencée. —Valéry. Dying…
German history is uniquely awful: that’s what makes it so engrossing
As I grew up half German in England in the 1970s, my German heritage was confined to the few curios…
This ex-priest’s history of the gospels could unsettle the most faithful churchgoer
When James Carroll was a boy, lying on the floor watching television, he would glance up at his mother and…
Spot the Booker Prize winning books
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Title stories: Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
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In the steppes of the ancients: travels on the Silk Road
It is difficult to fault this remarkable volume. The publishers have created a book of quality with stunning illustrations and…
How the smile came to Paris (briefly)
In 1787 critics of the Paris Salon were scandalised by a painting exhibited by Mme Vigée Le Brun. The subject…
All you’ll ever need to know about the history of England in one volume
Here is a stupendous achievement: a narrative history of England which is both thorough and arresting. Very few writers could…
Juliet Townsend (1941-2014)
Mark Amory remembers a close friend and trusted reviewer
Hiding in Moominland: the conflicted life of Tove Jansson
Tove Jansson’s father was a sculptor specialising in war memorials to the heroes of the White Guard of the Finnish…
In the Emergency School
We were registered as a form, and for the first day Left unsupervised alone in a distant room With empty…
Grimms’ fairy tales: the hardcore version
Child murder, domestic slavery, abusive families, cannibalism and intergenerational hatred — what could be better for the festive fireside than…
Transnistria: a breakaway republic of a breakaway republic
Transnistria is not an area well-served by travel literature or, really, literature of any kind. The insubstantial-seeming post-Soviet sandwich-filling between…
Books and arts
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Under the bed
The bogeyman of the ASIO agent under the bed has long been an obsession of the Left, and judging from…
Spot the Booker Prize winning books
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