More from Books
The myth of authentic English food
We think we know the story of our own classic staples, says Lewis Bassett, but ‘there is clearly a lot of romanticism at work when we talk about tradition’
An overpromised land: Farewell to Eden, by Sebastian Faulks, reviewed
Set in Mandate-era Palestine, Faulks’s timely novel presents the region’s problems as a Gordion knot, with anti-Semitism ‘at the root of everything’
The Cavalry in the Clouds: tales of the airborne Great War
Charles Spicer reminds us of the courage of the early aviators who graduated from the trenches to face new horrors in ‘spinning incinerators’ and crushing forced landings
Rain never stopped play – cricketing feats of Victorian Britain
Enthusiasm for the game saw cricket played on ice or in ankle-deep mud – by fathers against sons, the bearded against the barefaced, and even by the one-armed against the one-legged
Madness, mutiny and murder in the Canadian Arctic
As great ship-stuck-in-ice-disasters go, that of the Karluck in 1913 has few equals in its quest of a polar Atlantis
A fatal mistake: Time Being, by Jude Cook, reviewed
Believing she has incurable cancer, Esther Luck arranges her suicide by proxy. But her obliging accomplice misfires disastrously
Around Britain with a theodolite: a celebration of the Ordnance Survey maps
With their finely drawn symbols for hedges, fences, ‘gentlemen’s seats’ and letterboxes, the first maps gave the intimacies of landscape a cosy storybook intensity
The Great Uprising: Doom Painting, by A.K. Blakemore, reviewed
In the torrid summer of 1381, Wat Tyler, the charismatic leader of the Peasants’ Revolt, assumes he is headed for hell
May the way the world works remain forever mysterious
Science is never settled, says Carlo Rovelli, and in his essay on quantum mechanics even asserts that certainty is ‘uninteresting’
Art conquers all: The Disappearers by Marlon James, reviewed
In this Booker-shortlisted novel, Jamaica is a place where being gay is a matter of survival. It is about the lasting effects of violence and the immediate pleasure of sex, but its ultimate message is that art can give us the strength to live
Pain passed down: a portrait of Russia and the war that dare not speak its name
Seierstad’s new book has an antihero as its central figure, whose story, and that of Russia itself, is above all about violence and its corollaries: pain, callousness, neglect and always, everywhere, alcohol. While the other heroic Russians are not ignored, this is essentially a salutary read
Rebecca reimagined: The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain, reviewed
Manderley becomes Manderville, Mrs Danvers becomes Danni and there is a lesbian love affair played out in the boathouse. Originally a short story and expanded for a new feature, it makes for an engaging jeu d’esprit
Too much and much too long: The Rouse by China Miéville, reviewed
Miéville’s new novel has taken more than a decade to write and now we can see why: it is 1,264 pages long. The initial 190 pages could have been a standalone novel but instead it continues, the style more ornate and ormolu as it goes on
Worried about masculinity: from turrets and gargoyles to the state of men
Ronson uses the story of the very strange Chris Mark as a springboard into one of the hotter subjects of the day. The terrain may be familiar but it is nevertheless intelligent, engaging and funny
Curiouser and curiouser: The Strangers by Naomi Alderman, reviewed
This aptly titled novel might be Alderman’s weirdest book yet – a cross between a work of fiction and a memoir, whose main character, called Naomi Alderman, says gave her ‘a kind of freedom with both forms’
Mind the gaps: a far-from comprehensive life of Hannah Arendt
A much-acclaimed German ‘biography’ of the Jewish exile from Königsberg who became one of the most influential political and social thinkers of the postwar decades spurns chronology in favour of thematic commentary
A life lived to the hilt: Clare Consuelo Sheridan
The daughter of an American heiress and first cousin to Winston Churchill suffered penury and widowhood but went on to lead an extraordinary life as a sculptor, author, journalist and Soviet sympathiser who had affairs with H.G. Wells, Trotsky, Charlie Chaplin, Ataturk and Mussolini among many others
For better, for worse: Death Do Us by Ruthy Mason reviewed
Underwhelmed by the prospect of her future marriage, Bea focuses on the past instead, reconnecting with a former boyfriend and reliving dark events from her undergraduate life. Past and present blur uneasily together and the reader is kept cleverly in suspense
Stop moaning and do something: the active vs the passive voice
The story of a friendship and the challenges that arise from different ways of dealing with shared political opinions. Two women bond over anger about world injustice but fall out over how to combat it
Pongs of praise: the history and importance of smell for our antisceptic age
That a modern obsession with hygiene has taken smell from us, as have contemporary furnishings, are key takeaways from two books containing reams of delightful facts on all matters olfactory
First among equals: what makes a great leader and does it matter?
Jared Diamond applies a distinctive approach to a crowded literary space, employing his ‘Hamlet test’ to assess leadership quality. He nominates Shakespeare, the first president of Botswana, Alex Ferguson and the Mormons as his top picks, while acknowledging that there are many other factors to success that tilt the scales
A succession of selves: How Do People Stay the Same by Mark Bowles reviewed
A sad novel with funny moments that tells its story via a series of reverse-ordered journal entries. First, the happy ending, then a progression backwards through more troubling times, getting remarkably close to the messy truth of life along the way
Double jeopardy: the story of history’s most audacious KGB defector
The year is 1979, the place, Tehran, in the wake of the Iranian revolution and a key battleground of the Cold War. Enter ‘Redwood’, a towering Russian with access to Soviet intelligence secrets plus a devastating one of his own
The horror that emerges from the columns of Domesday Book
William the Conqueror’s Great Inquest codified one of the most ruthless land grabs in history, with the obliteration of 5,000 Saxon noblemen and the collective punishment of England’s native peoples
Why we should never be afraid to ask questions
Questions have always played a vital role when it comes to learning and connection. But we now live in a world that increasingly just wants answers, warns Lani Watson
