Books
Leap of faith: the miraculous phenomenon of levitating saints
St Joseph of Cupertino liked to nest in the tops of trees, and Allied pilots were dissuaded by the airborne Padre Pio from dropping bombs near his monastery in Apulia
The balance of power between humans and machines
Robert Skidelsky dismisses the possibility of our annihilation by a superintelligent computer system, since ‘science tells us that we cannot create such a being’. But does it?
How has the Conservative party’s ‘Dr No’ escaped everyone’s notice for so long?
This malevolent figure has been at the centre of the party for more than 40 years, says Nadine Dorries. But nothing in The Plot bears much relation to reality
Was there ever a time of equality in human society?
Living in open savannahs, men and women had no choice but to cooperate. But evolution caused men to fight and dominate, resulting in sexism and social hierarchy
Rip-roaring satire in Iota
This novel is the ninth book of the satirical series concerning Grafton Everest, a rambunctious, overweight, fictional academic who, as…
The best of this year’s children’s books
Among many delights, the Greco-Persian wars are brought to thrilling new life and a truly bizarre Alaskan folk tale is retold
Why do the British still dream of bricks and mortar?
For the past century, a ‘property-owning democracy’ has been envisaged as a kind of magic cure for social ills. But high prices now mean the opposite of emancipation for many
Magnificent men in their automobiles: the 1907 Peking-Paris rally
Kassia St Clair tells the gripping story of how competitors drove 15,000 km across mountains, desert and flooded rivers to prove the practicality of the early motor car
Tea and treachery: Sheep’s Clothing, by Celia Dale, reviewed
Posing as social services employees, two female ex-cons talk their way into the homes of elderly widows in order to drug them and steal their valuables
From the Odyssey to The Wizard of Oz: Praiseworthy, by Alexis Wright, reviewed
Everything blends into everything else as an Aboriginal knight errant sets out on a quest to save his scorched native bushlands
The horror of finding oneself ‘young-old’
‘I used to run upstairs all the time,’ sixtysomething Marcus Berkmann recalls wistfully, as, midway through life’s journey, he wakes to find himself in a dark wood
A bird’s-eye view: Orbital, by Samantha Harvey, reviewed
Six astronauts at the International Space Station observe the ravages on Mother Earth, but remain hopeful that mankind will find another parent planet
No laughing matter: accusations of transphobia wrecked Graham Linehan’s life
The comedian found himself out of work and out of his marriage when he challenged the transgender ideology that to be a man or women is about choosing an identity
The beauty of medieval bestiaries
Spiders, owls, elephants and dragons appear alongside dog-headed men and tusked women in a wealth of texts explaining the world in the most vivid terms then available
Enemy of the Disaster: Selected Political Writings of Renaud Camus, reviewed
The French writer does not accept that all incomers to his country can be truly ‘French’, and considers the dramatic change of population an unprecedented disaster
Love and loathing at Harold Wilson’s No. 10
Even her enemies considered Marcia Williams the prime minister’s ‘political wife’, and the real force in the Labour party from the mid-1960s to Wilson’s resignation
Books of the year II: more choices of reading in 2023
Recommendations from Mary Beard, Richard Ingrams, Sam Leith, Francis Wheen, Michela Wrong, William Dalrymple and many more
Not everything in the garden is lovely
For as long as we have been human, powerful chemicals in plants have provided us with stimulants, analgesics – and the means of murder
The best of this year’s gardening books
Authors reviewed include Jinny Blom on design, Jenny Joseph on scented plants, Maury C. Flannery on herbaria and Francis Pryor on his Fenland haven
Always carry a little book with you, and preserve it with great care, said Leonardo da Vinci
Despite the digitisation of everything, many of us still choose to jot down thoughts and sketches on paper, and would be bereft without a notebook to hand
Heart of Darkness revisited: The Dimensions of a Cave, by Greg Jackson, reviewed
Conrad’s classic is updated in this sinister tale of the US government’s involvement in a morally suspect virtual reality programme
The data-spew about Bob Dylan never ends
In his latest volume of biography, Clinton Heylin spares us no details about Dylan’s misogyny and cranky obsessions during his almighty midlife crisis
The shocking truth about adulterated wine: it was delicious
Provided it wasn’t actually poisonous, a beefed-up burgundy in the 1970s was often preferred to a weedy pure vintage pinot noir, says Rebecca Gibb
The misery of the Kindertransport children
Wrenched from their parents and familiar surroundings, the young refugees found safety in Britain, but were tolerated rather than cherished, says Andrea Hammel
Why did Jon Fosse win the Nobel Prize for literature? It’s baffling.
If Jon Fosse’s novels are experimental, they are experiments in exhausting banality, says Philip Hensher
