Books
Alzheimer’s research is challenging enough without a data manipulation scandal
Two cases of scientific fraud and cover-up are brought to light by Charles Piller, with serious consequences for the Alzheimer’s field in the US
Whether adored or despised, Princess Diana is never forgotten
Edward White examines the effect of the former Princess of Wales on the millions worldwide who never even laid eyes on her
The mother of a mystery: Audition, by Katie Kitamura, reviewed
A married couple’s life is thrown into turmoil with the arrival of a handsome young man out of the blue claiming to be the woman’s son
The enduring lure of Atlantis
Damian Le Bas goes in search of the fabled city beneath the waves in an attempt to overcome the grief of losing his father
The Russian spies hiding in plain sight
A programme of deep-cover espionage, begun in the 1920s, is as important to Russia as ever with the expulsion of so many diplomats in the wake of the war with Ukraine
Orphans of war: Once the Deed is Done, by Rachel Seiffert, reviewed
Interlinked stories of displaced children in Germany in 1945 capture this devastating moment in history. But amid the pain and trauma there is hope and resilience, too
Anselm Kiefer’s monstrous regiment of women
Women are found everywhere in Kieferland – martyrs, queens and heroines of the revolution, haunting, teasing and unknowable
The love that conquered every barrier – including the Iron Curtain
Iain Pears tells the dramatic story of how two art historians – one English, one Russian – met by chance in Venice and found they couldn’t live without each other
‘Death is a very poor painter’: the 19th-century craze for plaster casts
Bourgeois homes in the early 19th century became ‘virtual museums of death’, with models of heroes jostling replicas of the hands and feet of lost loved ones
Bloodbath at West Chapple farm
Fifty years after its original publication, John Cornwell’s account of the Devon murder mystery involving three dysfunctional siblings remains as haunting as ever
My adventures in experimental music – by David Keenan
In pieces dating from 1998 to 2015, the ‘rock evangelist’ interviews the revolutionary musicians of the time and recalls the ‘beautiful shambles’ of the first gig he ever attended
Adrift in strange lands: The Accidentals, by Guadalupe Nettel, reviewed
A sense of unease runs through Nettel’s latest short stories as the protagonists start to lose their bearings in increasingly unfamiliar scenarios
Friends fall out in the English civil war
Bulstrode Whitelocke and Edward Hyde, close colleagues in the 1630s, find themselves on opposite sides in the bitter conflict a decade later
The benign republic of Julian Barnes
The novelist presents his utopia – of unilateral disarmament and the public ownership of transport – in the tone of a thoughtful vicar giving an anodyne sermon somewhere in the Home Counties
The road trip from hell: Elegy, Southwest, by Madeleine Watts, reviewed
Watts skilfully conjures a sense of impending doom as a young couple’s expedition to the American Southwest is threatened by deadly fires sweeping through California
The story of food in glorious technicolour
Jenny Linford explores the global history of cooking and eating through specific items from the British Museum spanning recorded history
Time is running out for the world’s great rivers
Overfishing, industrial pollution and dams are squeezing life from once revered waterways that have sustained civilisations for centuries
Is there ever a good time to discuss the care of the elderly?
The young are too busy enjoying themselves, the middle-aged are loath to initiate it and the elderly themselves can’t always take part, but it’s a subject sorely in need of public discourse
Only Hitler could have brought the disparate Allies together
Their collaboration was riven by secret deals and betrayals, with Roosevelt suspicious of Churchill and Stalin suspicious of everyone, but all purporting to be great friends
Dangerous games of cat and mouse: a choice of crime fiction
A sadistic octogenarian meets her match in a malevolent eight-year-old at a Luxor hotel. Thrillers by Christopher Bollen, Henry Wise, Charlotte Philby and Cristina Rivera Garza reviewed
The boy who would be king: The Pretender, by Jo Harkin, reviewed
A magnificent imagining of the life of Lambert Simnel traces his progress from farm boy to coronation in Dublin to turnspit in the Tudor palace kitchens to plans of dark revenge
The mystical masterpiece from Stalag VIII-A
A meditation on Quartet for the End of Time, Oliver Messiaen’s great prison camp composition, should bring the strange, bird-fixated religious avant-gardist new admirers
Why we never tire of tales of pointless polar hardship
Out in the middle of nowhere, our heroes and anti-heroes are stripped down to essentials and the quest for knowledge becomes a quest for self-knowledge and human improvement
The making of Van Gogh as an artist came at a terrible cost
In the manic years 1886-88 when he lived with his brother in Paris, Vincent worked at fever-pitch, exhausting himself and Theo and driving them both towards insanity
Christianity in England is dying – and our national identity with it
The self, not society, has begun to matter most to people, with the collective life threatened by ragged bands of individualists lacking a sense of history and burdened by the mere present
