Books
On the cowboy’s trail: Powder Smoke, by Andrew Martin, reviewed
Detective Inspector Jim Stringer is back. This is a York novel, or rather a Yorkshire crime novel. The LNER railway…
A burnt-out case: the many lives of Dr Anthony Clare
Those who best remember Dr Anthony Clare (1942-2007) for his broadcasting are firmly reminded by this biography that we didn’t…
Cruelty and chaos in Karachi
Karachi, Pakistan’s troubled heart, is known to cast a seductive spell over residents and visitors alike. In Karachi Vice, the…
An English 17th-century double portrait holds many clues to its meaning
This is a big book about a minor painting — a double portrait of John Bankes, aged about 16 (the…
There’s nothing a white person can do about racism, says Dr Kehinde Andrews
After the death of George Floyd last year, and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests around the world, racism is…
The programme of art plunder initiated by Hermann Göring continued long after the war’s end
Making one’s fortune in Occupied Paris was largely a matter of knowing the right people: in fact, the further to…
Xi’s Big Red Book
As well as micromanaging the lives of 1.4 billion Chinese, Xi Jinping is becoming a prolific author. His latest book,…
Scenes from an open marriage: Luster, by Raven Leilani, reviewed
One of Barack Obama’s favourite books of 2020, Raven Leilani’s debut comes acclaimed by a literary Who’s Who that includes…
Exotic and endangered: Madagascar in peril
Madagascar. There are so many delightful incongruities about the island. Despite being off the coast of Africa, because of the…
The burden of guilt: The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, by Richard Flanagan, reviewed
Thanks to the Booker Prize, Richard Flanagan is probably the only Tasmanian novelist British readers are likely to have heard…
House of horrors: Girl A, by Abigail Dean, reviewed
If the last quarter of 2020 saw a glut of novels published, of which there were winners (Richard Osman) and…
The plight of the evacuee: Asylum Road, by Olivia Sudjic, reviewed
Olivia Sudjic’s second novel, Asylum Road, is a smart and sensitively layered story that’s told through niggling memories, unspoken thoughts,…
Whitewashing Bismarck just won’t wash
The reviewer’s first duty is to declare any skin he may have in the game, so here goes: I write…
‘Mother Volga’ has always been Russia’s lifeblood
‘Without this river the Russians could not live,’ remarked Robert Bremner in his work, Excursions in the Interior of Russia.…
Paradise regained: how the world’s wastelands are regenerating
Ignoring the padlocked gate, my six-year-old son Nicholas and I climbed through a break in the metal fence and pushed…
‘There were no rules then’: Dana Gillespie’s 1960s childhood
Although I can understand why Dana Gillespie might choose to call her memoir after her most famous album, for the…
Born out of suffering: the inspiration of Dostoevsky’s great novels
A death sentence, prison in Siberia, and chronic epilepsy. The death of his young children, a gambling addiction, and possible…
Murder most casual: why Patricia Highsmith’s thrillers are so chilling
Patricia Highsmith’s life was filled with more eccentric, disturbing brilliance than most readers can normally handle; and so the chief…
Family secrets: Life Sentences, by Billy O’Callaghan, reviewed
Despite innovative work by younger writers, there remains a prominent strain in Irish literature of what we might call the…
The problem with pills: The Octopus Man, by Jasper Gibson, reviewed
Having a breakdown? Try this pill, or that — or these? Built on the 1950s myth of a chemical imbalance…
Dreading demobilisation: The Autumn of the Ace, by Louis de Bernières, reviewed
The Autumn of the Ace begins in 1945, as the second world war ends, but both Louis de Bernières and…
Old men remember: reliving the horror of Tobruk
‘Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,/ But he’ll remember, with advantages,/ What feats he did that day.’ Peter…
Dolly Parton represents all that’s best about America
Dolly Parton is the living embodiment of America’s best values, says Philip Hensher
Speaking Our Language
The Australian language is one of the few bonds that still binds together the Australian nation. And, heaven knows, we…
The criminal code of Rotwelsch deciphered
When Martin Puchner was a child, tramps would turn up at his family home in Nuremberg to be fed by…
