Books

It’s not easy for a middle-aged woman to get inside the head of a 12-year-old innkeeper’s son in 1914

13 September 2014 9:00 am

Esther Freud wrote dazzlingly in the first person through the eyes of a five-year-old child in her first novel, Hideous…

Howard Jacobson’s J convinced me that I’d just read a masterpiece

13 September 2014 9:00 am

At first sight, J — which has beenshortlisted for the Man Booker Prize — represents a significant departure for Howard…

Margaret Atwood settles her accounts with this new short story collection

13 September 2014 9:00 am

Margaret Atwood is in the first rank of literary fame and her trophy cabinet is handsomely stocked; yet she has…

Title Stories: Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

13 September 2014 9:00 am

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The jilted bride

Charles Saatchi’s new book of photos makes me feel sick

13 September 2014 9:00 am

Charles Saatchi, the gallery owner, has created his own Chamber of Horrors in this thick, square book, ‘inspired by striking…

When Rachel Cusk went to Greece: would she be nice or nasty?

13 September 2014 9:00 am

Last year in Athens, rumours raced about Rachel Cusk’s creative writing classes at the British Council. Some of the (mostly…

How dare this author trash one of the great screenwriters of the 20th century?

13 September 2014 9:00 am

Should one say ‘vicious circle’ or ‘vicious cycle’? That’s a question that just goes round and round inside my head.…

Left

13 September 2014 9:00 am

Who is there left that you can talk to? Days go by. ‘Friendless, deserted’ (The Beggar’s Opera?) — left in…

‘Oppy Wood, 1917, Evening’, 1918, by John Nash

Books and arts

13 September 2014 9:00 am

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Left

11 September 2014 1:00 pm

Who is there left that you can talk to? Days go by. ‘Friendless, deserted’ (The Beggar’s Opera?) — left in…

Out of Reach

11 September 2014 1:00 pm

Think of a hand-slip, a spun summit bothered by mist, the whirr and thrum of dark metals, a stranded face…

Title Stories: Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

11 September 2014 1:00 pm

The post Title Stories: Catch-22, by Joseph Heller appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion…

Left

11 September 2014 1:00 pm

Who is there left that you can talk to? Days go by. ‘Friendless, deserted’ (The Beggar’s Opera?) — left in…

Out of Reach

11 September 2014 1:00 pm

Think of a hand-slip, a spun summit bothered by mist, the whirr and thrum of dark metals, a stranded face…

Title Stories: Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

11 September 2014 1:00 pm

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

Scenes from a long life. Left to right: the vulnerable young queen, in thrall to Prince Albert; overcoming her demons with the help of John Brown — depicted in a popular souvenir cut-out; and the matriarch as Empress of India

Is there anything left to say about Queen Victoria? A.N. Wilson has found plenty

6 September 2014 9:00 am

A new, revisionist biography argues that it was only after her husband’s death that Queen Victoria found her true self. Jane Ridley is impressed

The forgotten flank of the forgotten corps of the Forgotten Army

6 September 2014 9:00 am

The British who fought in Burma became known as the ‘Forgotten Army’ because this was a neglected theatre of the…

How on earth did David Mitchell's third-rate fantasy make the Man Booker longlist?

6 September 2014 9:00 am

Reincarnation has hovered over David Mitchell’s novels since the birth of his remarkable career. His haunting debut novel, Ghostwritten (1999),…

‘Some find their death by swords and bullets; and some by fluids down the gullet’. Thomas Rowlandson’s illustration of ‘The English Dance of Death’ by William Combe, 1815 — a satire on the evils of drinking gin

Enjoy gin but don’t read books? Or read them only while drinking gin? This is the book for you

6 September 2014 9:00 am

Gin Glorious Gin: How Mother’s Ruin Became the Spirit of London is a jaunty and diverting history of ‘a wonderful…

A book about human nature that makes your head spin – in a good way

6 September 2014 9:00 am

Vincent Deary is a therapist, and this book is the first part of a trilogy. How We Are is about…

Owen Jones’s new book should be called The Consensus: And How I Want to Change it

6 September 2014 9:00 am

Owen Jones’s first book, Chavs, was a political bestseller. This follow-up skips over the middle classes and goes to the…

Title Stories: A study in scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

6 September 2014 9:00 am

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Improbable, unconvincing and lazy - Ian McEwan’s latest is unforgivable

6 September 2014 9:00 am

The Children Act could hardly be more attuned to the temper of the times, appearing just as our newspapers are…

The Indian lady at the chemist

6 September 2014 9:00 am

I trust her look the shadow round her eyes her level stare explaining paracetamol these ones are strong take them…

‘The Astronomer’, 1867, a portrait of Sir John Herschel by Julia Margaret Cameron, great-aunt of Virginia Woolf

Books and arts

6 September 2014 9:00 am

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