More from Books
A melting pot of mercenaries: Afterlives, by Abdulrazak Gurnah, reviewed
‘That was how that part of the world was at the time. Every bit of it belonged to Europeans, at…
Full of desperate longing: Unquiet, by Linn Ullmann, reviewed
The scrawny little girl with ‘pipe-cleaner legs’ wants to feel at home with her parents. But father and mother live…
Surrounded by sea and sky: the irresistible draw of islands
Holiday islands, desert islands, love islands, islands of eternal youth, siren islands, islands filled with screaming demons. Of all the…
The ‘unremarkable’ life of SS officer Robert Griesinger
In October 2011 Daniel Lee was at a dinner party at which a Dutch woman told a disturbing story. It…
A cat’s-eye view of 18th-century social history
Jeoffry is, by now, one of the best-known cats in literary history. And unlike the Cheshire Cat, Mr Mistoffelees, Orlando,…
We all love a poltergeist story
There are fashions in the paranormal as in everything else. Since the famous Enfield hauntings of the late 1970s, poltergeists…
Gazing heavenwards: the medieval monks who mapped the planetary motions
We can probably blame George and Ira Gershwin. It was that brilliant duo who, in 1937, penned the memorable lyric…
Too many of our children are battling severe depression
Christopher Hitchens once said that women just aren’t as funny as men and Caitlin Moran believed him. But that was…
Born to be wild: the plight of salmon worldwide
In the Pacific Northwest, Native Americans paint images of salmon on to stones. They say that if you rub those…
Tenderness and sorrow: Inside Story, by Martin Amis, reviewed
Inside Story is called, on the front cover, which boasts a very charming photograph of the author and Christopher Hitchens,…
French lessons, with tears: inside a Lyonnais kitchen
You can’t say he didn’t warn us. In the final sentence of his previous book, Heat, a joyously gluttonous exploration…
Blonde with a bombshell: Sasha Swire’s revelations about the Cameroons
Ten years ago, reviewing Alastair Campbell’s diaries for The Spectator, I concluded as follows: Who will be the chroniclers of…
Where will our inventions lead?
When reviewers say that some new book reminds them of some famous old book, it often ends up as a…
It’s not all fluffed lines: the serious business of amateur dramatics
The greatest pain of lockdown has been, for me, the absence of am-dram. In one half of my life I’m…
The Special Relationship was never very special
I have a book of essays from 1986 by a group of British and American scholars called The Special Relationship.…
A dazzling fable about loneliness: Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke, reviewed
Susanna Clarke is a member of the elite group of authors who don’t write enough. In 2004, the bestselling debut…
Bringing up Benzene: Charlie Gilmour adopts a magpie
One day a baby bird falls from its nest into an oily scrapyard in Bermondsey, south London and seems unlikely…
Family secrets: Love Orange, by Natasha Randall, reviewed
The line between obsession and addiction is as thin as rolling paper. Neither are simple and both stem from absence,…
When sexism was routine: the life of the female reporter in 1970s London
This book made me almost weep with nostalgia, but heaven knows what today’s snowflakes will make of it. Fleet Street…
Is Germany really such a role model?
The British romance with Germany has always been an on-off affair. At the turn of the century, Kaiser Bill enjoyed…
Eager for beavers : the case for their reintroduction
Conservationists are frequently criticised for focusing on glamorous species at the expense of others equally important but unluckily uglier —…
The skeleton is key to solving past mysteries
One hot summer’s morning, as a nine-year-old girl living on the rim of a Scottish loch in the hotel owned…
The Tibetans’ fight for freedom continues — but only just
‘Free Tibet!’ used to be a rallying cry for Hollywood A-listers and rock stars. Richard Gere hung out with the…
How the wreck of the White Ship plunged England into chaos
Never was a monarch so undone by water as Henry I. A fruit of the sea killed him in 1135:…
Capital entertainment: how the West End became the playground of London
The West End was always something a little apart. Some years ago, I used to go drinking with a man…
