Books
Drawing blood with pen and ink
Molly Crabapple is an American artist and Drawing Blood is the story of her life. That life has only been…
Girl about town — on a bicycle
The old ditty got it wrong: it should have been ‘Maybe it’s because I’m not a Londoner that I love…
John Irving spoilt my Christmas
This novel, John Irving’s 14th, took the sheen off my Christmas, and here are the reasons. The comments on…
Maxim Gorky’s revolutionaries are ready for martyrdom
Maxim Gorky was trumpeted as ‘the great proletarian writer’ by Soviet critics, who considered his novel The Mother one of…
A Day Off
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
In Australia there are tens of thousands of emotionally stable, financially secure but medically infertile people. As much as they…
A Day Off
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
Well, I’ll go window-shopping in Laroussefor seeds of words. Strangely, they’re not for sale — you help yourself to what…
China’s brutal one-child policy will be catastrophic for us all
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
There was no science before 1572, the year that Tycho Brahe saw a new star in the night sky above…
Act of Faith
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
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’
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?
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
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
One of the great fascinations of a ‘lost’ work by a famous name dredged up out of the vault after…
Bernard Buffet: painter and poser
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
Publishing a ‘New York’ novel in the months after 11 September 2001 is a surefire, if accidental, way to make…
Dinners for beginners
Never mind teaching children to cook: they need to be taught to eat. Obvious? Totally, but this is the choosing…
The Lost Word
I know it cold, the scene in the woods, the grey-toned sky, and snow— the sudden clearing in the underbrush…
Fighting back
For anyone looking for a stimulating read this summer, one that bestows a certain sense of rationality on our otherwise…
Act of Faith
This winter morning between seven and eight, half a white moon still present, a ghost not shining on plentiful frost…
The Lost Word
I know it cold, the scene in the woods, the grey-toned sky, and snow— the sudden clearing in the underbrush…
Act of Faith
This winter morning between seven and eight, half a white moon still present, a ghost not shining on plentiful frost…
The Lost Word
I know it cold, the scene in the woods, the grey-toned sky, and snow— the sudden clearing in the underbrush…
