Books
More terrible beauty
At some point during your reading of this book the realisation might dawn, if you didn’t already know about his…
A posh Del Boy
The Art of Smuggling comes garlanded with fraternal encomia from Howard ‘Mr Nice’ Marks, Phil Sparrowhawk (author of Grass) and…
Dancing like a demon
‘Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough,’ said Gustave Flaubert. He might have been talking about this…
A separation of powers
In 2014, Beijing and Moscow signed a US$400 billion deal to deliver Russian gas to Chinese consumers. Construction of the…
A choice of crime novels
It’s often the case that present-day crimes have their roots in the past. Ian Rankin’s Even Dogs in the Wild…
The great inscape
‘I am 12 miles from a lemon,’ lamented that bon vivant clergyman Sydney Smith on reaching one country posting. He…
The wandering Jew
It’s been a long time coming for György Spiró. However much Hungarian writers complain about the isolation forced upon them…
A touch of class
The New Yorker has always been revered for the supreme quality of its writing, says Philip Hensher
Scratching a living
John Gross’s The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters: English Literary Life since 1800, a standard text for…
Family divisions
The geological title of this unhappy memoir is an apt metaphor for fissures in the relationships between individuals of David…
Lost, found and lost again
This is an extraordinary story. In 1845 John Snare, an unremarkable Reading bookseller, goes to an auction in a defunct…
Telling tales
Medea says ‘hiiiiiiii’ on the first page of Mallory Ortberg’s hilarious book, which puts smartphones in the hands of literary…
A step too far
Captain Robert Nairac was a Grenadier Guards officer serving in Northern Ireland when on 14 May 1977 he was abducted…
Agony and ecstasy in the garden
I usually throw away dust jackets but Robin Lane Fox chose his for a reason. He originally encountered Augustine of…
The rarest blend of white and gold
This unusual book is beautifully written, produced and illustrated, but its subject — the small Slender-billed curlew — is strangely…
Misprint
Stealth is its policy. It lies in wait. It is no respecter of age. It turns up late Or far…
Misprint
Stealth is its policy. It lies in wait. It is no respecter of age. It turns up late Or far…
Misprint
Stealth is its policy. It lies in wait. It is no respecter of age. It turns up late Or far…
Casual, funny, flirtatious, severe
Not only is this the definitive edition of T.S. Eliot’s poems, it is also the best biography of the poet we have, says Daniel Swift
Bored and lonely in Kathmandu
It started as a ‘shoke’ — the Anglo-Indian slang word for ‘hobby’. Bored and lonely in Kathmandu, the young Assistant…
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
During the first ten pages of this long work Paul Theroux, on a journey through the American South, meets two…
Assorted Christmas crackers
There’s a moment in a child’s life where Christmas begins to lose its magic. Once lost it cannot be regained,…
Looking for Nessie
It wasn’t until I drove past Loch Ness a couple of years ago that I realised just how enormous it…
Vanity fair and foul
People tend to use the term ‘fashion victim’ somewhat damningly — and maybe jealously — to describe someone obsessed by…
A life well lived
‘I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not…
