Libraries
‘If you steal this book I’ll beat your brains out’
Curses on the book thief from Latin and Old English sources range from the venomous to the sadistic to the mind-twistingly gruesome
Letters: the courts are not trying to subvert parliament
Judge not Sir: The claim by Ross Clark (‘Keir’s law’, 22 June) that the left can achieve what it wants…
Reading, writing and arithmetic – the glorious interrelation of maths and literature
Sarah Hart discusses the Oulipo group, Jorge Luis Borges and Eleanor Catton among other writers who have explored the use of mathematics in their works
The Sistine Chapel as you've never seen it before
Rosie Millard gets her gloved hands on one of the world’s most lavish – and expensive – art books
Jerusalem’s libraries contain priceless treasures — but almost no one gets to see them
The bearded figure clad in white robes and wandering barefoot through the streets of Jerusalem is not, in fact, the…
Remembering the 1968 Apollo mission – when the world was reaching to the future rather than drawing in
Take yourself back to (or try to imagine) Christmas 1968; a year full of disturbances, dashed hopes and extreme violence…
It’s Christmas. You don’t want Götterdämmerung. You want a waltz-operetta
Grade: A– 1898: two Parisiennes and a housemaid secretly invite each other’s partners to the Paris Opera ball and… c’mon,…
Hernando Columbus deserves to be as famous as his father, Christopher
On 9 May 1502, a young Spaniard joined the fleet setting sail for the newly discovered Americas. The boy, Hernando,…
Jonathan Coe’s raucous social satire smoulders with anger
When Rachel, one of the unreliable narrators of Number 11, wants to ‘go back to the very beginning’, she starts…
Dear Mary: How to cope with London Library overcrowding
Q. As a writer I find working at home too distracting. I am a longstanding member of the London Library…
The National Trust is spoiling beautiful places in the name of people who’ll never visit them
Why do we ruin beautiful places to make them appeal to those who’ll never visit anyway?
Dear Mary: How can I escape the tyranny of teacher presents?
Q. It’s only April and yet I am being emailed by parents who have already taken charge and are drumming…
