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The keys to success
Every Good Boy Does Fine – a banal phrase that also just happens to be the key to limitless wonder.…
Be careful what you wish for
The problem for feminism is men. Not, specifically, in the sense that men are the source of women’s problems, although…
A proud, independent spirit
‘Deplorable,’ wrote the historian Denis Sinor in 1958 about the state of Hungarian historiography in English. ‘Not only are the…
Laughing in the face of adversity
Writing from a child’s point of view is a daredevil act that Miriam Toews raises the stakes on in her…
Brother against brother
‘The Wars of the Three Kingdoms’ is the best description of the devastating conflict that erupted in England, Ireland and…
The real Norfolk
D.J. Taylor is a Norfolk native who, un-usually, has stayed put. These stories, written during the pandemic, are all set…
Duty vs pleasure
In this delightful sequel to her semi-autobiographical novel The Idiot (2017), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Elif…
Serious entertainment
What a weird lot crime writers are. I don’t come to this conclusion lightly, since I’m a crime writer myself,…
Rock till you drop
What do the following individuals have in common: a political activist from Suffolk; a chartered psychologist from Oxfordshire, who enjoys…
Cleopatra on the warpath
These Bodies of Water begins dramatically (as befits a book derived from Sabrina Mahfouz’s Royal Court show A History of…
No time-wasters, please
Apparently Anna Wintour wants to be seen as human, and Amy Odell’s biography goes some way to helping her achieve…
When she was good…
In June 1957, Robert Lowell attended a poetry reading by E.E. Cummings. Sitting dutifully and deferentially alongside him were Allen…
Forewarned is not forearmed
When Ray Bradbury was asked if his dystopian vision in Fahrenheit 451 would become a reality, he replied: ‘I don’t…
A mad racket
There is much more desperation in this searching and enlightening history than there are remedies. Andrew Scull is a distinguished…
Travels in time and space
It’s a bold writer who confronts a major historical moment such as a pandemic before it’s over, but Emily St.…
Truth in small matters
‘I can’t cook,’ writes the historian Karina Urbach, ‘which is probably why it took me so long to realise that…
Chariot on fire
Eighty years ago, just after midnight on 28 March 1942, the British destroyer HMS Campbeltown crept up the estuary of…
Desperate fools
Almost half of the terrorists hadn’t even turned up. Still, on the night of 23 February 1820, 25 men, including…
Fresh air and fanaticism
The village of Oberstdorf lies in the Bavarian Alps, geographically remote but, as this gripping book demonstrates, deeply etched by…
Linguistic games
David Shields is an American author who has decided to collate many of the questions he’s been asked in interviews…
The slow horses gather pace
Reviewers who make fancy claims for genre novels tend to sound like needy show-offs or hard-of-thinking dolts. So be it:…
To the back of beyond
What does home mean? Where your dead are buried, as Zulus believe? Or where you left your heart, as a…
The threat from within
According to Vladimir Putin, liberalism is an ‘obsolete’ doctrine, a worn-out political philosophy no longer fit for purpose. In this…
Glaswegian waif
Douglas Stuart has a rare gift. The Scottish writer, whose debut novel Shuggie Bain deservedly won the 2020 Booker Prize,…
Messy family business
Cressida Connolly’s new novel begins with a couple of endings. It’s spring 1855, and on the battlefields of the Crimea…
