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Silent witnesses
History is only as good as its sources. It is limited largely to what has survived of written records, and…
Prepared for the worst
This book could not have been published at a better time — nor, in a way, at a worse time.…
Feeling left behind
In her 2010 novel So Much for That, Lionel Shriver examined the American healthcare system with a spiky sensitivity. Big…
Reports of its death are exaggerated
These days the world seems to end with staggering regularity. From the financial crisis to Brexit to Trump to a…
Together and apart
Twins are literary dynamite. For writers, they’re perfect for thrashing out notions of free will, the pinballing of cause and…
Movers and shakers
What have the Akkadians ever done for us? As it turns out, rather a lot, as Philip Matyszak reveals in…
The pain of forgetting
‘Grief is the price we pay for love,’ the Queen once wrote. This memoir is steeped in the pain of…
Random souvenirs
Those who have been on creative writing courses may be familiar with the ‘I remember’ exercise. The two words become…
Taking a lot of flak
Those of us who write occasionally about military aviation can only admire the compelling personal experience that John Nichol brings…
Off to a rocky start
The Mayflower’s journey did not simply end with landfall at Plymouth Rock, if indeed it ever arrived there in the…
Tough-minded and tender-hearted
Nine cups of milky Nescafé Gold Blend a day; a low-tar cigarette smouldering; a hot-water-bottle always on her lap; the…
A great antidote to grief
Viewed from a purely private garden perspective, this has been a ver mirabilis. The blossom has been wonderful and long-lasting,…
Children go missing
Hot on the heels of The Stranger, the Netflix series based on his novel but transplanted to the UK, Harlan…
Unsavoury bedfellows
Just after John Pearson finished writing The Profession of Violence, his celebrated biography of the Krays, both his and his…
No love lost
Strolling through Whitehall Palace in the early years of the Restoration, Samuel Pepys was thrilled to spy a washing line…
Slaves and skulduggery
If I had a slave owner in my family background I’d probably keep quiet about it. Richard Atkinson, in his…
Taking French leave
With more than a dozen acclaimed novels to her name, not to mention short stories, poetry, a memoir and a…
Generous to a fault
Watching Heston Blumenthal arrange the infernal horror that is a lamprey’s head on a plate is one thing; seeing an…
A radical mismatch
Question: which American president and first lady would you care to imagine having intercourse? If that provokes a shudder, be…
Beating the cheats
On 6 May 2010 the eurozone crisis was tearing through the continent. Greece was bankrupt, and it looked as though…
The long and the short and the tall
The French have a love-hate relationship with heroes. For the great 19th-century historian Jules Michelet, the French Revolution was supposed…
Tricks and treats
Give thanks to the person who invented Venetian blinds, they say, or it would be curtains for us all. Curtains…
Delusions of destiny
One of the great mysteries of European history is how for the best part of 700 years a family who…
Slow-burning masterpieces
It’s the perfect opportunity to crack open those classics of 19th-century fiction you’ve always been meaning to read, and I…
Giving insects a bad name
Heteropoda davidbowie is a species of huntsman spider. Though rare, it has been found in parts of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia…
