Books
Was Mussolini’s wilful daughter his éminence grise?
In 1930, when she was 19 years old, Edda Mussolini married Galeazzo Ciano. His father was a loyal minister in…
Why Ronald Blythe is so revered
Ronald Blythe, the celebrated author of Akenfield, is to turn 100 next month, and to mark his centenary a beguiling…
Artistic achievements that changed the world
‘Astonish me!’ was the celebrated demand that the impresario Sergei Diaghilev made of Jean Cocteau when he was devising Erik…
Horribly described sex: The Last Chairlift, by John Irving, reviewed
Some time ago I was a guest at a book festival in France where we were invited to dinner in…
Mitfordian mischief: Darling, by India Knight, reviewed
It takes chutzpah to tackle a national treasure as jealously loved and gatekept as Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love.…
We love you, Uncle Xi!
Tom Miller on the cult of personality that China’s ‘core leader’ has so ruthlessly constructed
Violence and beauty combine in Siena
Siena, the jewel of Tuscan cities, was the mercantile and banking centre of medieval Europe. Bankers in Pre-Renaissance Siena preened…
Our provision for adults with learning disabilities is seriously inadequate
This book reveals one man’s determination to enable his brother to live his best life. It is also a fable…
An avian allegory: Dinosaurs, by Lydia Millet, reviewed
Adapt or die. That brutal Darwinian dictum is too blunt to serve as the motto of Dinosaurs, Lydia Millet’s slim,…
A history of pioneering women doctors descends into Mills & Boon trivia
The first three women doctors on the medical register in the UK had not only to study harder than their…
Reworking Dickens: Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, reviewed
Putting new wine into old wineskins is an increasingly popular fictional mode. Retellings of 19th-century novels abound. Jane Austen inevitably…
The glamour and romance of London’s vanished department stores
There are two journeys I’ll need to make after reading Tessa Boase’s heartbreakingly poignant book about London’s lost department stores.…
A complex, driven, unhappy man: the truth about John le Carré
Adam Sisman on the private life of John le Carré, revealed in letters and a kiss-and-tell
Fool’s gold
With Australia heading toward a referendum next year on a constitutionally enshrined indigenous ‘voice’ to parliament, the need for a…
The lonely passions of Emily Hale and Mary Trevelyan
Tom Williams describes how two women’s hopes of marrying T.S. Eliot came to nothing
Jan Morris’s ‘national treasure’ status is misleading
Almost two years after the death of Jan Morris, the jaunty travel writer and pioneer of modern gender transition, her…
Isolating with the ex: Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout, reviewed
Elizabeth Strout’s fourth book about Lucy Barton comes on the heels of Oh William!, shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize.…
The truth about ‘the most haunted house in England’
Place and story are little remembered now. The rectory in Essex was severely damaged by fire in 1939. But any…
Forgotten books worth rediscovering
Most readers have favourite books or authors they feel have been either forgotten or unjustly neglected. R.B. Russell, an assiduous…
The deathly malaise that’s crippling Russia
Now is a difficult time to empathise with Russians – which is why we need Maxim Osipov. We need him…
The dark side of the Himalayas
How best to write a book about the Himalayas when Mount Everest has been reduced to just another tick-off on…
The Osnabrück witch trials echo down the centuries
Absent mothers resonate in the latest offerings from two heavyweights of French literature. Getting Lost is the diary kept by…
The mad, bad and dangerous theories of Thomas Henry Huxley
Racism lies at the heart of the Victorian rewrite of the creation myth. What happened in prehistory, according to Thomas…
If buttons, balloons or premature burial terrify you, rest assured you’re not alone
Every summer, during our holiday in Orkney, there is a moment of panic. We’re standing on a dizzying cliff –…
The unpleasant truth about Joseph Roth
The Radetzky March must be one of the dozen greatest European novels – but its author was frighteningly unpleasant, says Philip Hensher
