Books
Adventures of the Time Traveler’s daughter: Life Out of Order, by Audrey Niffenegger, reviewed
In Niffenegger’s long-awaited sequel, Alba DeTamble slips between the past and a near-future world filled with robots, climate catastrophe, civil war and virtual reality museums
They don’t make men like Erroll Prior-Palmer any more
An archetypal figure of his time, the Major-General never sought – or gained – popularity, though the decisions he took on D-Day saved many comrades’ lives
The mystery of Easter Island’s still undeciphered script
If rongorongo emerged before any foreign business was transacted on the island, it would challenge our understanding of what writing was originally for
The best of enemies: three centuries of Anglo-German relations
Jan Rüger explores the paradox of how two such closely enmeshed nations could simultaneously be such formidable foes
Did the Bayeux Tapestry succeed as a tool of Norman propaganda?
Thought to have been created to help rally the English to the Conqueror’s cause, it did not prevent widespread rebellion in 1069
A passion for music: Partita, by Barbara Kingsolver, reviewed
Livia Cable, from poor, rural eastern Tennessee, seems capable of becoming a concert pianist. But will her ambitions be forever thwarted?
The triumph of virtue over fear and malice: The Bridge, by Colm Tóibín, reviewed
The beauty of Tóibín’s novella lies principally in its gentle, long-suffering protagonist, whose unselfconscious goodness is a kind of a miracle
Abstract ideas made concrete
Stephen Parnell explores the incomparable potential of a strong and malleable – if much maligned – building composite
‘I shall always want to say thank you to this country’: the gratitude of a former kindertransport refugee
Having escaped to Britain from Nazi-occupied Prague, aged six, Alf Dubs has long campaigned on behalf of other fugitives seeking sanctuary
Terrorism nearly always fails – so where does that leave the ‘freedom fighter’?
If his aim is in practice unachievable, this must surely torpedo any attempted justification for murder
Battling the elements – Claude Monet’s litany of anguish
For a dedicated plein-air painter, the great impressionist spent an awful lot of time grizzling about the weather
Warnings, omens and the end of days: the surreal times of the Emperor Charlemagne
It was an age of prophetic dreams and darkest fears, when genuine piety could happily coexist with appalling brutality
The myth of authentic English food
We think we know the story of our own classic staples, says Lewis Bassett, but ‘there is clearly a lot of romanticism at work when we talk about tradition’
An overpromised land: Farewell to Eden, by Sebastian Faulks, reviewed
Set in Mandate-era Palestine, Faulks’s timely novel presents the region’s problems as a Gordion knot, with anti-Semitism ‘at the root of everything’
The Cavalry in the Clouds: tales of the airborne Great War
Charles Spicer reminds us of the courage of the early aviators who graduated from the trenches to face new horrors in ‘spinning incinerators’ and crushing forced landings
Rain never stopped play – cricketing feats of Victorian Britain
Enthusiasm for the game saw cricket played on ice or in ankle-deep mud – by fathers against sons, the bearded against the barefaced, and even by the one-armed against the one-legged
Madness, mutiny and murder in the Canadian Arctic
As great ship-stuck-in-ice-disasters go, that of the Karluck in 1913 has few equals in its quest of a polar Atlantis
A fatal mistake: Time Being, by Jude Cook, reviewed
Believing she has incurable cancer, Esther Luck arranges her suicide by proxy. But her obliging accomplice misfires disastrously
Around Britain with a theodolite: a celebration of the Ordnance Survey maps
With their finely drawn symbols for hedges, fences, ‘gentlemen’s seats’ and letterboxes, the first maps gave the intimacies of landscape a cosy storybook intensity
The Great Uprising: Doom Painting, by A.K. Blakemore, reviewed
In the torrid summer of 1381, Wat Tyler, the charismatic leader of the Peasants’ Revolt, assumes he is headed for hell
May the way the world works remain forever mysterious
Science is never settled, says Carlo Rovelli, and in his essay on quantum mechanics even asserts that certainty is ‘uninteresting’
United by ambition: the ruthless rapacity of England’s two famous Cromwells
Protestant evangelicalism, avarice and the promotion of family fortunes were what chiefly characterised both ill-fated statesmen
Art conquers all: The Disappearers by Marlon James, reviewed
In this Booker-shortlisted novel, Jamaica is a place where being gay is a matter of survival. It is about the lasting effects of violence and the immediate pleasure of sex, but its ultimate message is that art can give us the strength to live
Pain passed down: a portrait of Russia and the war that dare not speak its name
Seierstad’s new book has an antihero as its central figure, whose story, and that of Russia itself, is above all about violence and its corollaries: pain, callousness, neglect and always, everywhere, alcohol. While the other heroic Russians are not ignored, this is essentially a salutary read
Rebecca reimagined: The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain, reviewed
Manderley becomes Manderville, Mrs Danvers becomes Danni and there is a lesbian love affair played out in the boathouse. Originally a short story and expanded for a new feature, it makes for an engaging jeu d’esprit
