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The wit, wisdom and womanising of Constant Lambert
Philip Hensher on the tragically short life of the ebullient and multi-talented musician, Constant Lambert
Piketty’s decaff Marxism would be just as oppressive and intrusive as the old variety
If a title works once, the chances are it will work again. Half the punch of Marx’s masterwork is in…
The man who went to Hell and back – for a laugh
Since the passing of Auberon Waugh, there haven’t been many really successful right-wing comedians. The Mayor of London is one.…
The derring-do that created Flashman
Christopher Maclehose recalls his dealings with the author of the Flashman novels, George Macdonald Fraser
The road to bestsellerdom
I met George Macdonald Fraser when he was the features editor of the Glasgow Herald. He was a very good…
The road to bestsellerdom
I met George Macdonald Fraser when he was the features editor of the Glasgow Herald. He was a very good…
If you ever wanted a Homeric jump-start, this is your book
Adam Nicolson plunges into Homer’s epic poetry and finds it inexhaustible. Sam Leith feels a touch of envy
Depression – an agony more powerful than love
Rachel Kelly, a respected former journalist on the Times, might seem the most blessed of women: five children, marriage to…
The Snow Queen crawls at snail’s pace – and you wouldn’t want it any other way
For all would-be novelists whose stumbling block is that they can’t resist describing every single sensation in depth — the…
Ettore Sottsass, Jnr: more than just a funny name
Personally, I have always been sensitive about a credibility gap, a difference in prestige, between literary and visual cultures. More…
A lost treasure of Japanese fiction – pocket-sized but world class
Think haiku, netsuke, moss gardens… Small is beautiful. Japanese art, a scholar of the culture once commented, is great in…
The Foreign Office's long war on women
I faltered during the preface to this account of the rise of the female (British) diplomat. Helen McCarthy, a historian…
From Bletchley Park to Take Your Pick – this baroness’s memoir is a blast
Jean Trumpington’s memoir, published as she closes in on her 92nd birthday, is an absolute blast from the opening page.…
Books and arts
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With enemies like these…
Rupert Murdoch’s last five years have been the worst of his career, but a new biography by Sydney University’s Rodney Tiffen is so unfair that even Peter Oborne, one of the newspaper magnate’s severest critics, found himself warming to him
Bold history
This is a bold attempt to write the history of Australia in 1,200 pages of narrative. A huge team of…
Radical nationalist
Many of Australia’s former prime ministers have been content to spend their political afterlife stoking the embers of their own…
Books and arts
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Look again – the first world war poets weren't pacifists
The patriotism of the Great War’s finest poets was neither narrow nor triumphalist but reflected an intense devotion to an endangered country and to a way of life worth dying for, says David Crane
Judge a critic by the quality of his mistakes
What the title promises is not found inside. It is a tease. John Sutherland says he has ‘been paid one…
Mid-life crisis, 13th-century style
The word delicate is seldom a compliment. I once threw a saucepan of hot soup out of a fifth storey…
The Italians who won the war – against us
Italy entered the second world war in circumstances very similar to those in which it signed up for the first.…