Books
An alternative map of Britain: caves, canals, megaliths and ley lines
Picture the map of Britain. Its strangely cadaverous shape, blobs of population and routes between them seem as familiar as…
What makes mankind behave so atrociously? Ian Buruma and Joanna Bourke investigate
The first interaction between two men recorded in the Bible involves a murder. In the earliest classic of English literature,…
Goodwill to Men
Overheard in advent was this complaint of a bus driver to a passenger, ‘Don’t call me brother! We’re not of…
Deng Xiaoping: following in Mao’s footsteps
Much has been written about Deng Xiao-ping (1904–1997), most recently by Ezra Vogel in Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of…
As No Art Is
The weekend’s on us, and no means of soothing it or kissing it away. The flat facades of mansion blocks…
Five of the best celebrity biographies of 2014
Cilla Black has become a strange creature during her 50 years in showbiz. When her husband Bobby was in hospital…
Books and arts
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
As No Art Is
The weekend’s on us, and no means of soothing it or kissing it away. The flat facades of mansion blocks…
Goodwill to Men
Overheard in advent was this complaint of a bus driver to a passenger, ‘Don’t call me brother! We’re not of…
Title Stories: The Woman in White
The post Title Stories: The Woman in White appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion…
Goodwill to Men
Overheard in advent was this complaint of a bus driver to a passenger, ‘Don’t call me brother! We’re not of…
Title Stories: The Woman in White
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Books and arts
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Eugene O’Neill: the dark genius of American theatre
Sarah Churchwell on how Eugene O’Neill virtually single-handedly revolutionised American theatre in the first half of the 20th century
How did English football get so ugly?
Bill Shankly, the manager of Liverpool FC in the club’s halcyon days of the1960s and 1970s, once said: ‘Football isn’t…
Jerry Lee Lewis: interrogating ‘The Killer’
‘I ain’t never pretended to be anything,’ says the man they call the Killer. ‘I’ve lived my life to the…
The best children’s books of 2014
If it’s all right with you, I’d like to launch a campaign please. Right here. You may be wanting me…
Composer, conductor, author, pianist, lecturer — was there anything Leonard Bernstein couldn’t do?
On 17 May 1969 Leonard Bernstein ended his 12-year run as musical director of the New York Philharmonic with a…
A mouth-watering selection: 2014’s best eight cookery books
The people behind the people are the ones to watch for, and we have all been waiting for a book…
A brief, witty look at the coming of the e-book
Paul Fournel is a novelist, former publisher and French cultural attaché in London, and the provisionally definitive secretary and president…
Death wears bling: the glory of London’s Caribbean funerals
Death is big business in parts of the Caribbean. In the Jamaican capital of Kingston, funeral homes with their plastic…
The book that made me (almost) believe in bitcoin
Bitcoins are digital money ‘mined’ from satanically difficult mathematical problems. Madness, obviously. But five years ago, while the rest of…
Move over Downton: Margot and the Asquiths’ marital soap opera
You might be forgiven for thinking that there is no need for yet another book about Margot Asquith. Her War…
Language
And when I landed in America, aged ten, I knew the language was the same. And yet At once the…
Women in the various hells of Algiers
On the surface Harraga is the story of two ill-matched women colliding dramatically, with life-changing consequences. What emerges, in throwaway…
