Book review
Danubia, by Simon Winder - review
The inbred Habsburg monarchs, who for centuries ruled without method over a vast, ramshackle empire, managed to leave an indelible mark on modern Europe, says Sam Leith
Almost English, by Charlotte Mendelson - review
Novels about growing up have two great themes: loss of innocence and the forging of identity. With this sparky, sharp-eyed…
419 by Will Ferguson - review
The term ‘419’ is drawn from the article in the Nigerian penal code that addresses fraud. However, it has transcended…
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…
The Downfall of Money, by Frederick Taylor - review
In Germany in 1923 money was losing its value so fast that the state printing works could not keep up.…
E.O. Wilson has a new explanation for consciousness, art & religion. Is it credible?
His publishers describe this ‘ground-breaking book on evolution’ by ‘the most celebrated living heir to Darwin’ as ‘the summa work…
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,…
The Rocks Don’t Lie, by David R. Montgomery - review
James McConnachie finds that theology and geology have been unlikely bedfellows for centuries
Lion Heart by Justin Cartwright - review
Justin Cartwright is famously a fan of John Updike — and here he seems to owe a definite debt to…
The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer - review
Thick, sentimental and with a narrative bestriding four decades, Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings feels above all like a Victorian novel,…
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,…
MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood - review
The two opening volumes of Margaret Atwood’s trilogy have sold over a million copies. One of them managed to be…
There and Then: Personal Terms 6, by Frederic Raphael - review
Frederic Raphael is forensic in his description of the failures of successful people. He is enviously superior and he is…
Francois Truffaut, by Anne Gillian - review
Almost 30 years after his death, François Truffaut remains a vital presence in the cinema. Terrence Malick and Wes Anderson…
The Red Road by Denise Mina- review
Denise Mina’s 11th crime novel, The Red Road (Orion, £12.99), is one of her best, which is saying a good…
Russian Roulette, by Giles Milton - review
Had Onan not spilled his seed upon the ground, he might have invented invisible ink. The possibility had not occurred…
Chaplin & Company, by Mave Fellowes - review
The unlikely heroine of Mave Fellowes’s Chaplin & Company (Cape, £16.99) is a highly-strung, posh-speaking, buttoned-up 18-year-old with the unhelpful…
The Huguenots, by Geoffrey Treasure - review
There could be no backsliding while preparing the next plot, murder or battle in the French Wars of Religion, says Hywel Williams
This Town, by Mark Leibovich - review
Many books have been written about the corruption, venality and incestuousness that characterise Washington DC, but none has been as…
Red or Dead by David Peace - review
The last time David Peace wrote a novel about football he got his publishers sued for libel, which may help…
A Classless Society, by Alwyn W. Turner - review
The title of Alwyn W. Turner’s book could deter readers. Even the Hollywood film The Secret Lives of Dentists promised…
Tangier, by Josh Shoemake - review
This may sound a little orientalist, but Tangier has some claim to being the most foreign city in the world.…
The Rainborowes, by Adrian Tinniswood - review
Adrian Tinniswood, so gifted and spirited a communicator of serious history to a wide readership, here brings a number of…
A Rogues’ Gallery, by Peter Lewis - review
Like Mel Brooks’s character the Two Thousand-Year-Old Man, Peter Lewis has met everyone of consequence. Though he doesn’t mention being…
Bitter Experience Has Taught Me, by Nicholas Lezard - review
What, really, is a literary education for? What’s the point of it? How, precisely, does it help when you’re another…
