Books
Cats, curates and cardigans
Anyone who has ever listened to the thump of a rejected manuscript descending cheerlessly on to the mat can take…
Happy Retirement
Retired persons are not necessarily retiring or withdrawn although we are entitled to feel tired and/or rejuvenated by our superannuated…
‘What will they do when I am gone?’
Edward Thomas was gloomy as Eeyore. In 1906 he complained to a friend that his writing ‘was suffering more &…
Micro-managing the terror
‘Lately, the paradoxical turns of recent Russian history… have given my research more than scholarly relevance,’ remarks Oleg Khlevniuk in…
Demonised Barber of Fleet Street
We know a great deal about Samuel Johnson and virtually nothing about his Jamaican servant, Francis Barber. The few facts…
God help me shippies!
T.H. White complained that the characters in Walter Scott’s historical novels talked ‘like imitation warming pans’: those in Amitav Ghosh’s…
Books & arts
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Winning the Cold War, losing the culture wars
On the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe day, many Eastern Europeans boycotted celebrations in Moscow, marking the day with…
Happy Retirement
Retired persons are not necessarily retiring or withdrawn although we are entitled to feel tired and/or rejuvenated by our superannuated…
Happy Retirement
Retired persons are not necessarily retiring or withdrawn although we are entitled to feel tired and/or rejuvenated by our superannuated…
The beginning of the end
Both German and Allied troops could be accused of war crimes in the struggle for the Ardennes. It’s a tragic and gruesome history, involving heavy casualties — but flashes of black humour make it bearable, says Clare Mulley
Are you sitting properly?
Funnily enough, after my editor sent me these three books to read, my guts started playing up. Suddenly, food seemed…
All the men and women merely players
How many books are there about Shakespeare? A study published in the 1970s claimed a figure of 11,000, and today…
Not a patch on our own Dear Mary
As Dear Mary so wittily demonstrates, our need for advice is perennial. But fashions change. Mary would probably take issue…
A narcissistic bore — portrait of the artist today
Two ambitious volumes of interviews with artists have just been published. They are similar, but different. The first is by…
No sex, please, in the Detection Club
‘The crime novel,’ said Bertolt Brecht, ‘like the world itself, is ruled by the English.’ He was thinking of the…
Not-so-evil genius
It is almost inconceivable that there could be a more densely detailed book about Napoleon than this — 800 crowded…
Punk in a funk
Look up Tracey Thorn’s live performances with Everything But The Girl or Massive Attack on You Tube and you’ll find…
Raiders of the lost Ark
Years ago, in an ill-conceived attempt to break into natural history radio, I borrowed a nearly dead car from a…
The more deceived
Louis the Decorator and his chums in the antiques trade use the word ‘airport’ adjectivally and disparagingly. It signifies industrially…
Hope against hope
At the eye of apartheid South Africa’s storm of insanities was a mania for categorisation. Everything belonged in its place,…
Sharpen your pencil
‘I had had a fantasy for years about owning a dairy farm,’ says Mary Norris, as she considers her career…
Lacan Appeals to the Patient
Since you remain reluctant, let us imagine that one’s selfhood is a work of art — a maquette in clay,…
Behind the beat
Tony Barrell can’t play the drums, but he’s in awe of those who can. ‘A band without a drummer is…
A choice of first novels
As all writers know to their cost, first novels are never really first novels. They make their appearance after countless…
