Books
A&E
If this waiting is hellish, then the sick are limbo dancing; only those who are bent double, or on the…
A&E
If this waiting is hellish, then the sick are limbo dancing; only those who are bent double, or on the…
Has land ownership changed our lives for better or for worse?
The highly profitable — and intrinsically selfish — system of land ownership that replaced medieval feudal tenure had profound moral consequences that continue to this day, says John Adamson
Portrait of a Guardian music critic
We critics seldom write our memoirs, perhaps because we skulk away our lives in dark corners, avoiding the public gaze,…
Germaine Greer's mad, passionate quest to heal Australia
Like an old woman in a fairy story, Germaine Greer, now in her late seventies, has taken to lurking in…
Toowit-towoo! At long last, a Collins book on owls
Owls have more associations for us than perhaps any other family of birds, suggested Jeremy Mynott in Birdscapes, so it…
Why you shouldn't keep elephants
On 15 September 1885, the world’s most famous elephant, Jumbo, was killed by a train. Jumbo, the star attraction at…
William S. Burroughs was a writer – not a painter, prophet, philosopher
William S. Burroughs lived his life in the grand transgressive tradition of Lord Byron and Oscar Wilde and, like all…
Richard Branson deserves (some) respect
Tom Bower’s first biography of Sir Richard Branson, in 2000, was memorable for its hilarious account of the Virgin tycoon’s…
Where artists went to drink and die
Once below a time (to quote the man himself) the bloated poet Dylan Thomas slouched back to New York’s Chelsea…
Books and Arts
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The new Garnaut Report
Yes, economics really is a dismal science, if this book is to be believed. Even when things are going right,…
What Englishmen learnt from Europe
A tour of the Continent was a prerequisite for young Jacobean noblemen training for statesmanship — provided they resisted its corrupting influence, says Blair Worden
When intellectuals are clueless about the first world war
No one alive now has any adult experience of the first world war, but still it shows no sign of…
How miserable a marriage can be
In Never Mind Miss Fox, Olivia Glazebrook’s second novel, the revelation of a long buried secret releases a Pandora’s Box…
Fiction embroiled in the Profumo affair
Sex, spies, aristocrats and atom bombs — the Profumo affair is in the news again, thanks to the recent Andrew…
Ornithology
‘The Wood Thrush can sing a duet by itself, using Two separate voices,’ as opposed To the whip-bird, one cry,…
Australia's entrancing Sheila
The ‘dollar princesses’, those American heiresses who crossed the Atlantic in search of a titled husband, are familiar figures from…
What seamen fear more than Somali pirates
If a time traveller were to arrive in our world from, say, 1514 — a neat half-millennium away — what…
Was Flann O'Brien at his best when writing about drink? (Answers on a damp stressed envelope, please)
On his deathbed in Dublin in the spring of 1966, Flann O’Brien must have been squiffy from tots of Paddy.…
A creepy father, a lustful music teacher, four virgins — and one genuine love affair
London, 1794. It’s a different world from that portrayed by the Mrs Radcliffes and Anons of the time: rich young…
William Dalrymple's notebook: How I lured Jhumpa Lahiri and Jonathan Franzen to Jaipur
In 2004, ten days after I moved my family to a new life in India, I gave a reading at…
Books and Arts
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Jaipur Notebook
In 2004, ten days after I moved my family to a new life in India, I gave a reading at…
Ornithology
‘The Wood Thrush can sing a duet by itself, using Two separate voices,’ as opposed To the whip-bird, one cry,…
