Biography
Was Bach as boring as this picture suggests?
What, one wonders, will John Eliot Gardiner be chiefly remembered for? Perhaps, by many who have worked with him, for…
Queen Victoria, by Matthew Dennison - review
When Prince Albert died in 1861, aged 42, Queen Victoria, after briefly losing the use of her legs, ordered that…
A Strong Song Tows Us, by Richard Burton - review
How minor is minor? ‘Rings a bell’ was more or less the response of two English literature graduates, now successful…
Music at Midnight, by John Drury - review
When John Drury, himself an Anglican divine, told James Fenton (the son of a canon of Christ Church) that he…
Wilkie Collins by Andrew Lycett - review
In the outrageous 2010 press hounding of the innocent schoolteacher Christopher Jefferies over the murder of his young female tenant…
Uncle Bill, by Russell Miller - review
Given the outcome of recent military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is pertinent to look for one particular quality…
Olivier, by Philip Ziegler - review
Philip Ziegler is best known for his biographies, often official, of politicians, royalty and soldiers. They include Harold Wilson, Edward…
Salinger, by David Shields - review
This biography has somewhat more news value than most literary biographies. Its subject worked hard to ensure that. After 1965,…
Raymond Carr by María Jesús Gonzalez - review
This is an unusual book: a Spanish historian writes the life of an English historian of Spain. In doing so,…
Land of Second Chances, by Tim Lewis - review
This is a book about Rwanda. It’s a book about cycling. But it’s not, in the end, a book about…
