John Milton
The subversive message of Paradise Lost
The great poem is mostly about revolution: how much individuals can revolt against God, father, church and king without bringing all the heavens down upon their heads
A walled garden in Suffolk yields up its secrets
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
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
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
What’s wrong with calls for an ‘Islamic Reformation’
