Books

Maxim Gorky’s revolutionaries are ready for martyrdom

23 January 2016 9:00 am

Maxim Gorky was trumpeted as ‘the great proletarian writer’ by Soviet critics, who considered his novel The Mother one of…

A Day Off

23 January 2016 9:00 am

Well, I’ll go window-shopping in Larousse for seeds of words. Strangely, they’re not for sale — you help yourself to…

Child’s play

23 January 2016 9:00 am

In Australia there are tens of thousands of emotionally stable, financially secure but medically infertile people. As much as they…

A Day Off

21 January 2016 3:00 pm

Well, I’ll go window-shopping in Laroussefor seeds of words. Strangely, they’re not for sale — you help yourself to what…

A Day Off

21 January 2016 3:00 pm

Well, I’ll go window-shopping in Laroussefor seeds of words. Strangely, they’re not for sale — you help yourself to what…

Small comfort: a mother, whose only son was killed in a car accident at the age of 23, holds a picture of him as a child. Many such bereaved parents, unable to conceive again and struggling to support themselves in later life, say they have nothing left to live for

China’s brutal one-child policy will be catastrophic for us all

16 January 2016 9:00 am

China’s brutal one-child policy was not only inhuman; it will profoundly damage the rest of the world, says Hilary Spurling

Science was invented in 1572

16 January 2016 9:00 am

There was no science before 1572, the year that Tycho Brahe saw a new star in the night sky above…

Act of Faith

16 January 2016 9:00 am

This winter morning between seven and eight, half a white moon still present, a ghost not shining on plentiful frost…

An Egyptian comedy of errors

16 January 2016 9:00 am

The Yacoubian Building, the first novel of the Egyptian writer Alaa Al Aswany, sold well over a million copies in…

Writing a bestseller ‘on the verge of a stroke’

16 January 2016 9:00 am

Every four seconds, somewhere in the world, a Lee Child book is sold. This phenomenal statistic places Child alongside Stephen…

What happened to British communism?

16 January 2016 9:00 am

Like most trade unionists in the 1970s and 80s I worked with a fair few communists. Men like Dickie Lawlor,…

The history of London through its parish churches

16 January 2016 9:00 am

John Betjeman, the patron saint of English parish churches, once warned against praising British buildings too much. Be careful before…

Stella Gibbons’s ‘lost work’ should have remained in the drawer

16 January 2016 9:00 am

One of the great fascinations of a ‘lost’ work by a famous name dredged up out of the vault after…

Junk artist Bernard Buffet in his château

Bernard Buffet: painter and poser

16 January 2016 9:00 am

Bernard Buffet was no one’s idea of a great painter. Except, that is, Pierre Bergé and Nick Foulkes. Bergé was…

The ultimate New York parking novel

16 January 2016 9:00 am

Publishing a ‘New York’ novel in the months after 11 September 2001 is a surefire, if accidental, way to make…

Dinners for beginners

16 January 2016 9:00 am

Never mind teaching children to cook: they need to be taught to eat. Obvious? Totally, but this is the choosing…

The Lost Word

16 January 2016 9:00 am

I know it cold, the scene in the woods, the grey-toned sky, and snow— the sudden clearing in the underbrush…

Fighting back

16 January 2016 9:00 am

For anyone looking for a stimulating read this summer, one that bestows a certain sense of rationality on our otherwise…

Act of Faith

14 January 2016 3:00 pm

This winter morning between seven and eight, half a white moon still present, a ghost not shining on plentiful frost…

The Lost Word

14 January 2016 3:00 pm

I know it cold, the scene in the woods, the grey-toned sky, and snow— the sudden clearing in the underbrush…

Act of Faith

14 January 2016 3:00 pm

This winter morning between seven and eight, half a white moon still present, a ghost not shining on plentiful frost…

The Lost Word

14 January 2016 3:00 pm

I know it cold, the scene in the woods, the grey-toned sky, and snow— the sudden clearing in the underbrush…

A 19th-century view of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (Kiev’s Monastery of the Caves) Russian School

The history of Ukraine — from Herodotus to Hitler

9 January 2016 9:00 am

Timothy Snyder traces Ukraine’s complex history from its classical heritage to the present day

The dying fall of the Fells

9 January 2016 9:00 am

At some point during your reading of this book the realisation might dawn, if you didn’t already know about his…

The art of getting busted

9 January 2016 9:00 am

The Art of Smuggling comes garlanded with fraternal encomia from Howard ‘Mr Nice’ Marks, Phil Sparrowhawk (author of Grass) and…