Lead book review
Humour and harmony
A successful joke relies on rhythm, tempo, cadence, pause – so why does David Stubbs find comedy and music so antithetical, wonders Joel Morris
The ruling passion
Simon Kuper finds little to connect the strongmen of the past and present apart from their contempt for their own supporters
A lurid fascination
After months of conversations with Ireland’s most notorious murderer, Mark O’Connell got both more and less than he bargained for, says Frances Wilson
‘The Romans always win’
The emperors of Rome’s golden age avoided civil war at all costs. But wars against other peoples were a different matter, says Peter Stothard
The art of the impossible
A corpse comes back to life and goes on a road trip. Lorrie Moore’s powerful new novel leaves Philip Hensher shaken, troubled, but also consoled
The trial without end
Was one venal old man primarily responsible for France’s catastrophe of 1940-44, or was it a case of collective failure? The question remains unanswered, says Patrick Marnham
Three’s a crowd
Calling themselves the Bee Gees spelt trouble from the start for the very disparate Gibb brothers, says Craig Brown
Where there’s a will…
Determined sceptics will always find reasons to cast doubt on Shakespeare’s authorship, but who cares in the end, Emma Smith wonders
Discordant times
Exiled from Russia and often denigrated in America, Rachmaninoff lived in a fug of unbearable, impenetrable sadness, says Paul Kildea
A veil of obscurity
Philip Hensher discusses how words relating to women’s ordinary experiences have been shrouded in euphemism over the centuries
A lifetime’s passion
Honor Clerk celebrates Jim Ede and his matchless collection at Kettle’s Yard
Is this the new Big Idea?
Daniel Chandler claims to be a bringer of values, to fill the vacuum at the heart of British politics. Noel Malcolm is unconvinced
A magnificent melting pot
Central Europe has shaped our history for centuries – but will the West always find it baffling, wonders Peter Frankopan
Is there anything safe to eat?
It’s not only junk food we should be wary of, says Olivia Potts. Pretty well everything contains additives – and our five-a-day mantra is costing the Earth
Children of humanity
Philip Hensher admires the humanists of the past, and finds them consistently kinder, more decent and generous than their contemporaries
A nation in turmoil
Twentieth-century Spain was a violent, corrupt and volatile country – but that hardly made it an anomaly within Europe, says Sarah Watling
A new world order
Zones of exception, freed from ordinary forms of regulation, are proliferating in bewildering varieties. Kwasi Kwarteng considers the consequences for democracy
Alexis the Great
Toby Young is struck by how prescient Tocqueville’s observations have proved on the social and political structures of the many countries he visited
In the steps of the Master
Philip Hensher follows Noël Coward from precocious childhood to the vortex of fame
Is this the end of travel writing?
Viv Groskop shares Sara Wheeler’s fears that modern sensibilities are fatally threatening a centuries-old genre
The problem of our insignificance
Alexander Masters examines the top down cosmology proposed by Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog
The clock is ticking fast
Our own actions have created the toxic prison in which we now live, says Peter Frankopan, and the future looks terrifying. Adam Nicolson can only agree
What is Asia?
Is it merely a European construct – and what, if anything, do its diverse peoples have in common, wonders Peter Frankopan
The nightmare continues
The Cultural Revolution may have been officially forgotten, but it will always haunt Xinran and her generation
The seeds of the kingdom
Salman Rushdie returns to India with a full-throated mix of history, magic realism and dazzling storytelling, says James Walton
