Books
The agony and frustration of reporting from the Middle East
For 25 years, Abed Takkoush assisted foreign reporters like Jeremy Bowen when they arrived to cover the chaos and conflicts…
Richard E. Grant’s tribute to his wife leaves us shattered for his loss
Richard E. Grant pulls off a feat here. The title is twee but the content isn’t. With unselfpitying dash the…
The roots of 20th-century German aggression
It is the contention of Peter Wilson, professor of the history of war at Oxford University and the author of…
Explorer, author, soldier, lover: The Romantic, by William Boyd, reviewed
William Boyd taps into the classical novel tradition with this sweeping tale of one man’s century-spanning life, even to the…
A complicated bond: The Best of Friends, by Kamila Shamsie, reviewed
When I think of Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire, I picture a pot boiling on a hob, the water level rising…
Was Nato expansion worth the risk?
This is an important and topical book. Mary Sarotte traces the difficult course of Russia’s relations with Europe and the…
Vaughan Williams’s genius is now beyond dispute
Ralph Vaughan Williams’s towering position in our national life is now beyond dispute – and can only grow, says Simon Heffer
An empire crumbles: Nights of Plague, by Orhan Pamuk, reviewed
Welcome to Mingheria, ‘pearl of the Levant’. On a spring day, as the 20th century dawns, you disembark at this…
The ‘delishious’ letters of Lucian Freud
Love him or loathe him, Lucian Freud was a maverick genius whose life from the off was as singular as…
‘I always made an awkward bow’: John Keats’s poignant farewell
On Sunday 17 September 1820, John Keats and his travelling companion, the young painter Joseph Severn, set sail for Italy,…
The great deception: The Book of Goose, by Yiyun Li, reviewed
As introductions go, ‘My name is Agnès, but that is not important’ does not have quite the same confidence as…
The sheer tedium of life at Colditz
Given the prisoners’ histories, it’s not surprising there were so many attempted breakouts from Colditz, says Clare Mulley
James Bond and the Beatles at war for Britain’s soul
‘Better use your sense,’ advised Bob Dylan: ‘take what you have gathered from coincidence.’ John Higgs is a master of…
An outcast in Xinjiang: The Backstreets, by Perhat Tursun, reviewed
Like Dostoevsky’s Underground Man, Perhat Tursun’s unnamed protagonist is an outcast. A young Uighur in an increasingly Han city (Urumchi,…
Back on the road: Less is Lost, by Andrew Sean Greer, reviewed
Get ready for more of Less: Andrew Sean Greer’s hapless novelist is back on the road. First things first: you…
A character assassination of Rudy Giuliani
Lord help me I love a hatchet job, and you’ll have to too if you want to make it through…
The Index of Prohibited Books makes a fine reading list
In a classic paradox of bureaucracy, the Index of Forbidden Books only really hit its stride when its original task…
Mad men plotting: The Unfolding, by A.M. Homes, reviewed
Fifteen years ago, A.M. Homes published The Mistress’s Daughter, an explosive, painful account of how she met her birth mother,…
A translator’s responsibilities are as formidable as a transplant surgeon’s
When asked what it is we do, translators often resort to metaphors. We liken the act of translation to performing…
Robert Harris's gripping Act of Oblivion is let down by anachronisms
When Charles II became king of England in 1660, he pardoned most of those who’d committed crimes during the civil…
A single meal in Rome is a lesson in Italian history
Farmer, restaurateur, critic, foodie activist, traveller (he’s worked in Zimbabwe as well as South Africa), cookery book writer, longtime TV…
A ghoulish afterlife: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, by Shehan Karunatilaka, reviewed
Ten years ago Shehan Karunatilaka’s first novel, Chinaman, was published and I raved about it, as did many others. Set…
Ian McEwan’s capacity for reinvention is astonishing
Ian McEwan’s latest novel is unusually long and autobiographical. It’s surprising in other ways, too, says Claire Lowdon
Ballet comes of age with Sergei Diaghilev
‘What exactly is it you do?’ asked a bamboozled King Alfonso XIII of Spain upon meeting Sergei Diaghilev at a…
A.N. Wilson has many regrets
‘Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults.’ A.N. Wilson seems, on the surface, to have taken to heart…
