More from Books
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
Language lessons: Taipei Story, by Rebecca Kuang, reviewed
Lily Chen, a Chinese-American Yale student, hopes to master Mandarin on a summer course in Taiwan. But matters soon begin to unravel in this idiosyncratic coming-of-age story
The trouble with communism began with Plato
The elite guardians of his envisioned Kallipolis, where private property was banned, were protected by auxiliaries who sound not dissimilar to the KGB or the Stasi
Surviving the Dresden firestorm: Slaughterhouse-Five revisited
Susan Farrell explores the genesis and afterlife of Kurt Vonnegut’s great anti-war novel
From ballrooms to billets – the fate of our country houses and their owners in wartime
Judith Lewis focuses on how wives and daughters, left in charge of ancestral homes, coped with vandalism, dispossession and even ruin as a result of requisition in the second world war
Sad girl story: Sophie, Standing There, by Meg Mason, reviewed
Thirtysomething Sophie Pattison worships the celebrated author Lilac Dunne from afar. But what will happen when the two actually meet at a literary festival?
Emmanuel Carrère’s obsession with his mother’s duplicity borders on fanaticism
The French writer continues to delve into painful family history and the cover-up of his grandfather’s collaboration with the Nazis
An excellent spy: Cold Sunset, by William Boyd, reviewed
Tasked with exfiltrating a secret agent from Moscow, Gabriel Dax shows himself as competent as ever: good at following people, good at laying traps and good at shooting to kill
We must stop treating soil like dirt
Frank Ashwood’s illuminating guide to the hidden world beneath our feet convinces us of its complexity, vulnerability and supreme importance to all life
The wonder of ancient English parish churches
From Saxon sundials to medieval Doom paintings, our village churches hold the key to English art, history, architecture, character and even language
A world full of artifice: Life of M, by Rachel Cusk, reviewed
Cusk’s beautiful actress protagonist claims to shun the advantages of fame – but fabrication and privilege are essential to her glide through life
How black music changed the world
Three new books describe the global influence of black alternative music, from blues, jazz and hip-hop to dub, rap and dancehall
Could we bring back the Great Auk?
Many species that once bulked large in the British consciousness have vanished. But what if we could ‘de-extinct’ the flightless, penguin-like seabird?
Would Eve Babitz really have wanted her unsent letters published?
Bridget Jones on acid is how Babitz emerges in private, measuring her days in pounds, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol and failed love affairs
Why Mussolini still fascinates Italians
There was never a proper reckoning with fascism in Italy, as there was at Nuremberg – and even today the Duce is wrapped in ‘a strange and irrational aura’, says Stephen Gundle
Will this century see the end of books?
James Marriott warns of the threat to truth and the flourishing of mad fantasies as we become increasingly reliant on screens for online information and entertainment
The enigma of Juba II, ‘the most fortunate captive ever taken’
The Numidian prince, raised in Julius Caesar’s household, remains a shadowy figure, but we get some good stories about his contemporaries, including Pliny the Elder and the Emperor Caligula
From housemaid to monster: The Mare, by Angharad Hampshire, reviewed
Drawing on the real-life story of Hermine Braunsteiner, a former Ravensbrück camp guard, Hampshire convincingly demonstrates how apparently harmless people can become brutal murderers
How have we allowed star ratings to take over our lives?
In a commodified world that now seems inescapable we score each other on dating apps as casually as we might a vacuum cleaner or a takeaway
‘I always had a good life’: the boast of the 1970s’ most notorious terrorist
Carlos the Jackal, responsible for shooting mainly unarmed people point-blank, will live comfortably in a French prison for the rest of his days – a celebrity to inmates and visitors
Always second but actually invincible: Agrippa, by Robert Harris, reviewed
The Roman general’s inner life is a blank, as Harris admits – but filling it with memories of military campaigns and aqueduct-building doesn’t make for the liveliest story
Shots in the dark: Fatal Love, by Louisa Treger, reviewed
The tragic story of Ruth Ellis, hanged in 1955 for murdering her abusive lover, is retold in gripping fictional form
‘A wonderful, wacky woman’: a tribute to Betty Freedman
The gifted pianist, photographer and art collector had an extraordinary love of the contemporary, and this account of her friendship with David Hockney is deeply moving
