theft
Uncomfortable truths about the siege of Leningrad
The legend of heroic resistance during the 872-day blockade helped many survivors bear the guilt of having robbed, betrayed, murdered and even eaten their fellow citizens
A choice of thrillers for end of summer escapism
Charlotte Philby’s appropriately titled The End of Summer skilfully explores the strains of a double life. Also reviewed: Ajay Close, Charlotte Vassell and Giuseppe Miale di Mauro
Conning the booktrade connoisseurs
Fuelled by loathing and resentment, Thomas James Wise set about defrauding as many privileged bibliophiles as he could – only to be rumbled by two of their number
Tea and treachery: Sheep’s Clothing, by Celia Dale, reviewed
Posing as social services employees, two female ex-cons talk their way into the homes of elderly widows in order to drug them and steal their valuables
George Osborne’s midlife crisis
There should be a term in anthropology for what happens to a certain type of Tory male in middle age.…
Caught in a web of lies: The Guest, by Emma Cline, reviewed
Moving among the rich of Long Island, an upmarket prostitute grows increasingly desperate as her many misdemeanours are exposed
How you can tell the gender of a thief
My attempt at being Columbo was only taking me so far. In solving the mystery of who raided the barn,…
Breaking the commandments on Moses’s mountain
A medieval party of 800 Armenians at the top of Mount Sinai suddenly found themselves surrounded by fire. Their pilgrim…
A bookseller’s guide to book thieves
At my shop, it seems to be everyone from students to organised professional gangs
Sexual assault, chamber-pot etiquette, and other problems of early rail travel
Simon Bradley dates the demise of the on-board meal service to 1962, when Pullman services no longer offered croutons with…
What Hanif Kureishi learned from being robbed by his accountant
Have you ever met a sane accountant? I ask, because one of the more striking sentences in A Theft runs:…
Any other business: Why a trillion dollars of dividends is a milestone worth celebrating
Dividends paid by listed companies around the world passed $1 trillion for the first time last year, we learn from…
