Lead book review
Into the woods
Anyone who spends time among trees senses how good that is for their physical and mental wellbeing, says Ursula Buchan
Magical mountains
A magnificent new history of the Caucasus earns Peter Frankopan’s highest praise
A thankless task
The final volume of Peter Ackroyd’s History of England feels like a dutiful exercise carried out in a hurry, says Philip Hensher
The fiasco of the century
There was certainly no shortage of excellent advice about war in Afghanistan offered to many American leaders by many people over many years, says Justin Marozzi
An isolated misfit
Why did W.G. Sebald risk his reputation by telling such strange, repeated lies, wonders Lucasta Miller
A character assassination too far
Revisionist biographies of Churchill are nothing new but this one lays the hostility and contempt on with a trowel, says Andrew Roberts
A fevered mind
Philip Hensher finds Robert Burton’s perception of the world and the human condition endlessly fascinating
The man who wasn’t there
Craig Brown describes his various encounters with the MP who notoriously faked his own death in 1974
A dangerous madness
The QAnon conspiracy theory may be absurd, but it can’t be ignored. It has already led to significant acts of violence, says Damian Thompson
President Xi’s panopticon
Tom Miller describes how Xinjiang became a laboratory for China’s mass surveillance system – built with the help of US tech companies
A fully engaged life
From Bengali schoolboy to citizen of the world – Amartya Sen’s autobiography is a joy, says Philip Hensher
Tortured genius
Andrew Motion describes the inner turmoil of the neglected poet Ivor Gurney
Still funny after all these years
A new biography of William Hogarth pays dutiful homage to his satirical genius but does not challenge its predecessors, writes Philip Hensher
A city under siege
Adam Sisman describes the toxic atmosphere in Berlin after the end of the second world war
An addiction catastrophe
The Sacklers’ callous greed has unleashed a tsunami of pain, says Ian Birrell
Et in Orcadia ego
Maggie Fergusson on the reclusive poet George Mackay Brown
An orange or an egg?
Simon Winchester follows the volatile French mission to Ecuador in 1735 to determine the shape of the Earth
The great rule breaker
Philip Hensher describes D.H. Lawrence’s restless search of a new way of life
A nation of chancers
Alex Burghart describes England’s fitful development from a collection of warring kingdoms into a highly centralised state
More grand projects
Not content with imposing his will on nations, Napoleon tried to subdue nature too, says David Crane
Painted out
Sixty years ago, women were still excluded from the art history canon, says Laura Freeman
A spiteful muse
Monica Jones certainly proved Philip Larkin’s equal for racism and misogyny, says Andrew Motion
Less than angelic
Vicars, tea parties and village fetes were a far cry from Barbara Pym’s early enthusiasms, Philip Hensher reveals
The voice of a generation
Bob Dylan didn’t just assimilate the Great American Songbook – he vastly increased its size and variety, says Andrew Motion
Stark, intense honesty
Philip Roth was prepared to stare the soul resolutely in the face – and for that he can be forgiven most things, says David Baddiel
