Books
Murder, incest and paedophilia in imperial Rome
Suetonius’s Lives of the Caesars appears in a vibrant new translation by Tom Holland, the current princeps of popular Roman history
The nerdy obsessive who became the world’s richest man
Seen by fellow pupils as an obnoxious loner, Bill Gates was a rebellious teenager, challenging his teachers and ‘at war’ with his parents
Inside the Unholy See: the infiltration of the Vatican by foreign powers
Yvonnick Denoël reveals how, since the mid-20th century, a scandalous number of priests have acted as communist moles
After half a billion years, are sharks heading for extinction?
Studies suggest that a third of coral reef sharks and more than half of pelagic sharks may be wiped out as a result of overfishing, habitat loss and pollution
A piece of Mars to toy with
Lunar souvenirs are slumping, but Martian rocks are soaring as today’s super-rich fight to get the best fragments from space on their desks
The strange potency of cheap perfume
Adelle Stripe has constructed a memoir around 18 key fragrances, but it is the Body Shop’s cheery Dewberry that evokes her worst teenage experience
The plain-speaking bloke from Warrington who painted only for himself
Born in 1932, Eric Tucker created his art not for exhibition or in pursuit of fame but simply because he felt compelled to do so
The pointlessness of the German Peasants’ War – except in Marxist ideology
The short-lived 16th-century revolt resolved absolutely nothing, but it loomed large in Engels’s thought and in the official DDR interpretation of history
The need to feel seen: Perfection, by Vincenzo Latronico, reviewed
A young couple in thrall to the beauty of their Instagrammed life soon grow dissatisfied with reality, and ennui follows them wherever they go
The shards of heaven beneath our feet
All precious stones are ‘earthly versions of the flickering lights in the night’s sky’, writes Philip Marsden, in a dazzling exploration of the minerals that make up our planet
Xi Jinping’s alarming blueprint for the future
Kevin Rudd leaves us in no doubt about Xi’s determination to influence foreign governments and increase China’s political and policy leverage over the world’s financial institutions
The queer traditions of King’s College, Cambridge
Simon Goldhill describes how intimate friendships between students and teachers were actively encouraged, with the college providing a refuge for gay men and helping them define their sexuality
A macabre quest for immortality: Old Soul, by Susan Barker, reviewed
In a bid to prolong her life indefinitely, a female serial killer preys on lonely individuals, leaving their organs mysteriously rearranged
The pioneering women of modern dance
Through the lives of nine 20th-century performers, beginning with Isadora Duncan, Sara Veale traces the move away from conventional ballet to a bold new philosophy of dance
Finding your other half in ancient Athens
According to Aristophanes, human beings were two-bodied before Zeus split them – which is why we spend our lives perpetually searching for our missing partner
The psychological toll of being constantly tracked and harassed
With smartphones providing hitherto undreamt of opportunities for spying, human rights workers and investigative journalists are left struggling for breath
The international criminal justice system was prejudiced from the start
Double standards have existed since its foundation in 1945, with the most powerful nations determining who should be held accountable for war crimes
The crude tirades of Cicero the demagogue
Far from being a crusader for virtue, the Roman statesman is seen as a violent firebrand, disregarding the law when it suited him and laying the groundwork for Julius Caesar’s assassination
Never underestimate the complexities of African history
Too many commentators, Luke Pepera included, extrapolate from one region they know well to a continent boasting a multitude of religions, languages and ethnic roots
The secret of Gary Lineker’s success
The Leicester-born striker was neither exceptionally skilful nor assiduous; but he worked out how to score goals, and later excel in broadcasting, through intelligence and calm resilience
For all its fame, the Great Siege of Malta made no difference to the course of history
The victorious Hospitallers soon subsided into genteel irrelevance, while the Ottomans remained a formidable Mediterranean power for centuries to come
The splatter of green and yellow that caused uproar in the Victorian art world
A double biography of John Ruskin and James Whistler describes in detail the notorious feud between the prominent critic and the flamboyant post-Impressionist
The self-serving delusions of the ‘Swastika Kaiser’
With the collapse of the Weimar Republic, the eldest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II decided he was best off allying himself with the Nazis, and seeing what he could obtain for his family in the process
Why do we assume smell is our weakest sense?
When it comes to the power of association, smell is unmatched, says Jonas Olofsson. It can take us back to childhood in an instant