Books
High culture on the hill
With its distinctive hilly site and unusually coherent architecture (significantly, most of it domestic rather than civic), Hampstead has always…
A mad social whirl
The name Arthur Jeffress may not conjure many associations for those not familiar with the London post-war art world, but…
The reluctant style guru
Alexandra Shulman says that she had ‘no desire to write an autobiography’ — so instead she has written about her…
Women’s world
One of life’s perennial questions is what would the world look like if it was ruled by women. It’s an…
Village of the damned peculiar
I doubt whether any book would entice me more than a horrible hybrid of crimefiction, speculative fantasy, weird religion and…
Lose some, win more
‘Beauty is pain,’ the model Gigi Hadid asserts. She’s one of the successful, rich people quizzed by William Leith in…
Streams of consciousness
Geography can be history and history geography — and sometimes the most obvious things are overlooked. Laurence C. Smith’s Rivers…
The great philanderer
Michael Arditti has never held back from difficult or unfashionable subjects. His dozen novels, including the prize-winning Easter, as well…
A time to keep silence
‘You’re never alone with a Strand,’ went the misbegotten advertisement for a new cigarette in 1959. What the copywriter didn’t…
The milk of paradise?
Until fairly recently, all over the western world there were specialised eating places catering largely for Jews who respected the…
Sinister toy story
We often hear that science fiction — or ‘speculative’ fiction, as the buffs prefer — can draw premonitory outlines of…
Nazi on the run
In 1926, while putting in place the repressive laws and decrees that would define his dictatorship, Mussolini appointed a new…
Another man with a mission
How refreshing in a time of general sensitivity to find a book intended to infuriate and debunk. Welcome to the…
Birds of a feather
Philip Hensher describes how Paris became a magnet for literary-minded lesbians in the early 20th century – where they soon caused quite a stir
Smith not Mill
For a long time in this country, conservatism was the political creed that dare not speak its name. The term…
A cascade of wishful thinking
Ah well. It was a nice try. A few years ago I wrote a book called The Great Acceleration, arguing…
Keeping faith
Imagine being on indefinite lockdown, imprisoned in a dark, underground, 6’ x 12’ cell, freezing in winter, boiling in summer…
Bloodbath in the Pacific
The US operation of 1945 to take the island of Okinawa was the largest battle of the Pacific during the…
Just the beginning
In Japan, people thought the world would end in 1052. In the decades leading up to judgment day, Kyoto was…
East meets west
When musicians from outside the Anglo-American pop mainstream achieve success in the West, there are conflicting reactions. Seun Kuti, the…
The enemy within
It’s easy to dismiss the fascistic ideologues who populate Graham Macklin’s book as reactionary cranks of no significance. It’s also…
Catch me if you can
NVK, which is the IATA (International Air Transport Association) code for Narvik’s old airport, is in this instance Naemi Vieno…
Dealing in death
John Troyer, the director of the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath, has moves. You can…
A foul-weather family
Excess, incest and marital misery were in the blood. Frances Wilson uncovers several generations of infamous Byrons
The ‘other’ other half
Conservative estimates place the number of those in America with more than one spouse as up to 100,000, but the…
