Books
A universal language will always be an unattainable dream
The comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in his stage persona as the dim-witted interviewer Ali G, once asked Noam Chomsky if…
Bitter harvest – how Ukraine’s wheat has always been coveted
Publishers love books with ambitious subtitles such as ‘How Bubblegum Made the Modern World’, and this one’s, about American wheat…
Stewart Brand: man of ideas and infuriating contrarian
In his 2005 book What The Dormouse Said John Markoff traced the roots of the personal computer industry to the…
Will there ever be a reliable lie detector?
For as long as we have been human we have looked for some way of telling when we are being…
Arnold Bennett’s success made him loathed by other writers
Virginia Woolf admitted to her journal: ‘I haven’t that reality gift.’ Her contemporary Arnold Bennett had it in spades. He…
Four difficult women who fought to preserve the English countryside
One thing that Covid lockdown made us appreciate was the importance of being outdoors. When we were finally allowed into…
Mismatched from the start: One Day I Shall Astonish the World, by Nina Stibbe, reviewed
First the bad news: Nina Stibbe’s new novel does not feature Lizzie Vogel, the engaging narrator of the trilogy that…
Does knotted string constitute ‘writing’?
What particularly excites Silvia Ferrara, the author of The Greatest Invention, is not language per se but writing – that…
How Britain was misled over Europe for 60 years
Just as one is inclined to believe Carlyle’s point that the history of the world is but the biography of…
Seeing and being seen: Wet Paint, by Chloë Ashby, reviewed
In this arresting debut novel we follow 26-year-old Eve as she tries to come to terms with the loss of…
Was Thomas Edison guilty of murder?
In September 1890 a Frenchman called Louis Le Prince left his brother in Dijon and boarded a train to Paris,…
A pure original: the inventive genius of John Donne
John Donne sounds like nobody else, and his poems invite us to feel that we might know him, says Daniel Swift
Blowing in the wind
He’s still smiling but Scott Morrison might not be after reading this revealing book. If he reads it that is.…
The spycop debacle is another nail in the Met’s coffin
In 2010, Mark Kennedy, a tattooed social justice warrior, was exposed as an undercover police officer. In this guise he…
Like it or not, cryptocurrency is here to stay
There was a time when you could read a book to keep up to date about a subject. Well, that’s…
An inspirational teacher: Elizabeth Finch, by Julian Barnes, reviewed
‘Whenever you see a character in a novel, let alone a biography or history book, reduced and neatened into three…
Norman Scott has the last word on a very English scandal
Norman Scott’s long-anticipated memoir reveals the British Establishment at its worst, says Roger Lewis
How Charles II sought to obliterate a decade of British history
When the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy, in the person of that ‘lovely black boy’ Charles II, was announced in…
The Queen’s dedication to service was learnt at her father’s knee
If you have ever thought that there cannot be anything new to say or to learn about the Queen, you…
AOC, America’s youngest congresswoman, has already been compared with FDR and JFK
‘Who is AOC?’ the back cover of this book asks. ‘A wack job!’ says Donald Trump. ‘She needs to run…
Are cancel-culture activists aware of their sinister bedfellows?
Is there a woke case to be made for freedom of expression? Jacob Mchangama certainly seems to think so. This…
Zimbabwe’s politics satirised: Glory, by NoViolet Bulawayo, reviewed
NoViolet Bulawayo’s first novel We Need New Names,shortlisted for the Booker in 2013, was a charming, tender gem, suffused with…
The parent snatchers: The School for Good Mothers, by Jessamine Chan, reviewed
Frida Liu, the 39-year-old mother of a toddler named Harriet, has a very bad day which will haunt her for…
History must at least be readable if we’re to learn anything from it
Richard Cohen was once one of our foremost book editors as well as being an Olympic sabre champion. Since moving…
Has the past decade blunted our sense of the duty of care?
Jay Elwes 2 April 2022 9:00 am
Modern British history can be divided into two parts: before Covid and after. That is the central pillar of this…