Books
The genius of Reynolds Stone: a private man in a public world
You may not know the name of Reynolds Stone, but it is almost impossible that you haven’t come across his…
Burnt out at 27: the tragedy of Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin hated the word ‘star’, but she loved the trappings. As soon as she made serious money she bought…
When a footman’s home is his castle
My own love for this memoir may be all to do with snobbery and self-identification. Moreover, I’ve always thought a…
How I’ll remember John Humphrys — by his producer Sarah Sands
There was a dinner in Soho to celebrate the publication of John Humphrys’s book, A Day Like Today. John was…
Duty, devotion and lack of self-pity — Anne Glenconner is an example to us all
Trained from a young age to be self-effacing, never liking to be the centre of attention, having been traumatised for…
The other half of Wham!
Have you heard the story about the time that Andrew Ridgeley, the 1980s heart-throb, refused to answer the door to…
A force for good: Samantha Power is driven by a deep sense of idealism
In the spring of 2008 I spent a fine day in the company of Samantha Power. She had come to…
Bernadine Evaristo shoulders weighty themes lightly: Girl, Woman, Other reviewed
It’s a slippery word, ‘other’. Taken in one light, it throws up barriers and insists on divisions. It is fearful…
Can you spot the book title?
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Nothing can beat the romance of luxury train travel between the wars
There may never have been a murder on the real Orient Express, but otherwise Agatha Christie’s depiction of luxury train…
Being diagnosed as autistic was the happiest day of my life
It’s easy to forget that until the late 1980s the notion of an autistic person being able to write a…
Religion of peace?
This easy-to-read volume of essays, each originally published in the journal of Catholic culture, Annals Australasia, is an important caveat…
Answers to Spot the book title
Billy Liar, by Keith Waterhouse Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John le Carré To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf The…
More juicy gossip from Kenneth ‘Climbing’ Rose
When this second volume of diaries begins in 1979, Kenneth Rose is 54 and well established as the author of…
Who will take on the behemoths of Big Tech?
With Britain having gone through its third general election in four years, the halcyon days of Cleggmania in the 2010…
The Great Barrier Grief — and countless other marine disasters
In the last, wrenching episode of BBC’s Blue Planet 2, there’s a distressing moment when a young Australian diver, expert…
Dave Eggers’s satire on Trump is somewhat heavy-handed: The Captain and the Glory reviewed
A feckless moron is appointed to the captaincy of a ship, despite having no nautical experience. The Captain has a…
Tame family dramas: Christmas in Austin, by Benjamin Markovits, reviewed
My partner’s brother once found himself accidentally locked into his flat on Christmas Day, which meant having to spend it…
Female partisans played a vital role in fighting fascism in Italy — but it was a thankless task
‘I am a woman,’ Ada Gobetti wrote in a clandestine Piedmont newsletter in 1943: An insignificant little woman, who has…
The good sex award goes to Sarah Hall: Sudden Traveller reviewed
Sarah Hall should probably stop publishing short stories for a while to give other writers a chance. If she’s not…
What is the relationship between truth and accuracy? The Lifespan of a Fact reviewed
At the time, I’m sure it all seemed absolutely hilarious. It was in 2012 that W.W. Norton first published The…
Who knew that chemistry could be so entertaining?
Here’s how the element antimony got its name. Once upon a time (according to the 17th-century apothecary Pierre Pomet), a…
Spy who came in from the EU
I read Mr le Carré’s latest spy novel, Agent Running in the Field last weekend, despite everything. What do I…
As English spread over the subcontinent, India lost forever its rich Persianate literary heritage
In the seventh century, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang made an epic journey through the Gobi desert and over the…
Britain’s obsession with boxing is as deep-rooted as its devotion to cricket
Boxing has long been a British obsession, exported successfully to North America, but never widespread on the Continent. Mainland Europeans…
