Books
Black Knight
A few forgotten objects Dad passed on: copperplate pens with long nail nibs, still stained black, one coal-fire red, laid…
Title stories: The moon and sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
The post Title stories: The moon and sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to…
Black Knight
A few forgotten objects Dad passed on: copperplate pens with long nail nibs, still stained black, one coal-fire red, laid…
Title stories: The moon and sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
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Game of thrones: five kings spanning five centuries launch a new series on royalty
Nigel Jones reviews the first five titles to appear in a new series on British monarchs
Fact, fiction or farce? The American comic novel is becoming increasingly hard to define
The American comic novel is going through an odd phase. Just lately it seems like anything funny must sneak in…
Stories about storytelling: Kirsty Gunn’s preoccupation with words is utterly entrancing
Although entitled Infidelities this collection of short stories could as well be called Choices, because that is what really preoccupies…
Sunday roasts and beaded bubbles: dining with the poets
In December 1817 Benjamin Robert Haydon — vivid diarist and painter of huge but inferior canvases of historic events —…
Mark Steyn: a hairy, successful version of myself, says Julie Burchill
For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, Mark Steyn is sort of a hairy, successful version of me—…
Touring America in Steinbeck’s footsteps
In 1960 John Steinbeck set off with his poodle Charley to drive around the United States in a truck equipped…
Answers to ‘Spot the Booker Prize Winners’
by Simon Drew
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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