More from Books
Northern noir: The Mating Habits of Stags, by Ray Robinson, reviewed
It is winter in north Yorkshire. On the brink of New Year, Jake, a laconic, isolated former farmhand in his…
Tree-ring analysis has solved many historical mysteries
History is only as good as its sources. It is limited largely to what has survived of written records, and…
Our recent stockpiling is nothing to what ‘preppers’ lay in store
This book could not have been published at a better time — nor, in a way, at a worse time.…
The fitness fetish: The Motion of the Body Through Space, by Lionel Shriver, reviewed
In her 2010 novel So Much for That, Lionel Shriver examined the American healthcare system with a spiky sensitivity. Big…
The end of capitalism has been just around the corner for centuries
These days the world seems to end with staggering regularity. From the financial crisis to Brexit to Trump to a…
A ponderous parable for our times: The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana
Twins are literary dynamite. For writers, they’re perfect for thrashing out notions of free will, the pinballing of cause and…
Greco-Roman civilisation has dominated ancient history for too long
What have the Akkadians ever done for us? As it turns out, rather a lot, as Philip Matyszak reveals in…
How I finally came to terms with my sister’s death
‘Grief is the price we pay for love,’ the Queen once wrote. This memoir is steeped in the pain of…
For a creative writing exercise in lockdown, revisit George Perec
Those who have been on creative writing courses may be familiar with the ‘I remember’ exercise. The two words become…
They took a lot of flak: the lives of the Lancaster bombers
Those of us who write occasionally about military aviation can only admire the compelling personal experience that John Nichol brings…
From persecuted to persecutors: The Mayflower Pilgrims fall out
The Mayflower’s journey did not simply end with landfall at Plymouth Rock, if indeed it ever arrived there in the…
My mother — as I remember her best
Nine cups of milky Nescafé Gold Blend a day; a low-tar cigarette smouldering; a hot-water-bottle always on her lap; the…
Gardening is the great panacea
Viewed from a purely private garden perspective, this has been a ver mirabilis. The blossom has been wonderful and long-lasting,…
Children go missing: the latest crime fiction reviewed
Hot on the heels of The Stranger, the Netflix series based on his novel but transplanted to the UK, Harlan…
The establishment was always covering up for Bob Boothby
Just after John Pearson finished writing The Profession of Violence, his celebrated biography of the Krays, both his and his…
Bullying on Twitter is nothing compared with what Charles II’s mistresses endured
Strolling through Whitehall Palace in the early years of the Restoration, Samuel Pepys was thrilled to spy a washing line…
The shock of discovering your ancestors were slave traders
If I had a slave owner in my family background I’d probably keep quiet about it. Richard Atkinson, in his…
The best way to cope with rejection is to write about it
With more than a dozen acclaimed novels to her name, not to mention short stories, poetry, a memoir and a…
The Plantagenet we always forget
Watching Heston Blumenthal arrange the infernal horror that is a lamprey’s head on a plate is one thing; seeing an…
The sorrows of young Hillary: Rodham, by Curtis Sittenfeld, reviewed
Question: which American president and first lady would you care to imagine having intercourse? If that provokes a shudder, be…
Disrupting the world — from a small bedroom in Hounslow
On 6 May 2010 the eurozone crisis was tearing through the continent. Greece was bankrupt, and it looked as though…
France will always have a love-hate relationship with its heroes
The French have a love-hate relationship with heroes. For the great 19th-century historian Jules Michelet, the French Revolution was supposed…
Houdini looks bound to captivate us forever
Give thanks to the person who invented Venetian blinds, they say, or it would be curtains for us all. Curtains…
Vain, inbred and inept: how could the Habsburgs have survived so long?
One of the great mysteries of European history is how for the best part of 700 years a family who…
Victorian novels to enjoy in lockdown
It’s the perfect opportunity to crack open those classics of 19th-century fiction you’ve always been meaning to read, and I…
