John Milton

A walled garden in Suffolk yields up its secrets

25 May 2024 9:00 am

When Olivia Laing began restoring the former property of a garden designer, she had no idea of the beauty that lay hidden by rampant weeds

The woman who put the Spencer family on the map

1 July 2023 9:00 am

Born in 1559, Alice Spencer, a formidable networker, matchmaker and patron of the arts, was the muse of poets including Edmund Spenser and John Milton

Monstrous, beautiful, damaged people make for tiresome company in Polly Samson’s The Kindness

21 March 2015 9:00 am

Julian is clever, handsome and spoiled, a gilded youth who has all the girls wanting to mother him, and a…

Why calling for an ‘Islamic Reformation’ is lazy and historically illiterate

7 February 2015 9:00 am

What’s wrong with calls for an ‘Islamic Reformation’