Books
Message
A tiny fly is moving over the page of my dull book this sultry evening, and it is my conceit…
Message
A tiny fly is moving over the page of my dull book this sultry evening, and it is my conceit…
When we were very young
A wonderfully vivid school story has surfaced written by Queen Victoria as a child. The monarch was clearly a sensational novelist manqué, says Philip Hensher
Lost in the telling
This is a thriller, a novel of betrayal and separation, and a reverie on death and grieving. The only key…
A triumphant failure
I must be an idiot for pointing out the failings of a novel that’s so screamingly, self-denouncingly about failure. Steve…
Something sensational to read on the train
Readers who have put in some time on the railways may remember the neat, brush-painted graffiti that appeared in 1974…
Dizzying swirls of impasto
With a career of more than 60 years so far, Frank Auerbach is undoubtedly one of the big beasts of…
Nasty piece of work
Finders Keepers is a sort-of sequel to last year’s Mr Mercedes, Stephen King’s first foray into what he called ‘hard-boiled…
To Hell in a handcart — again
Despite the offer of joy proposed in the subtitle, this is a deeply troubling book by one of Britain’s foremost…
The bravest of the brave
‘It is the task of a Patton or a Napoleon to persuade soldiers that bits of ribbon are intrinsically valuable.…
Celebrations of song and humanity
‘All my life, always and in every way, I shall have one objective: the good of Hungary and the Hungarian…
Beautiful, bedevilled island
The Arabs invaded Sicily in the ninth century, leaving behind mosques and pink-domed cupolas. In the Sicilian capital of Palermo,…
Lulzfags v. moralfags
It is almost a century since the Michelin brothers had the brainwave of supplementing their motorists’ guide with information about…
There’s no substitute for human intelligence
Spying may be one of the two oldest professions, but unlike the other one it has changed quite a lot…
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In eastern Congo years ago on a road logged into a hill I drove or was driven one evening to…
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Host
In eastern Congo years ago on a road logged into a hill I drove or was driven one evening to…
Host
In eastern Congo years ago on a road logged into a hill I drove or was driven one evening to…
Striking Middle Sea
The Mediterranean has always been central to European civilisation — and a source of drama and conflict, says Anthony Sattin
The elite who tried to save Russia
The veteran Russian historian Dominic Lieven’s new study of Russia’s descent towards the first world war is deeply researched, highly…
In the name of the father
‘People talk about their childhood and it’s so mundane. I don’t remember much about it, if I’m honest. I can’t…
A 50-year infatuation
The subject of the least characteristic essay in this engrossing collection of meditations on painters, painters’ lives, painting and reactions…
Romance of the old kitchen garden
Considerable areas of our memory are taken up with food: it might be the taste of Mother’s sponge, the melting…
The strangest objects we know of
The idea of black holes sounds so quintessentially modern and 20th-century that it may come as a surprise to learn…
Funny things happen on the way to the Scillies
It’s a real skill, writing about a journey where nothing ever happens. We shouldn’t be surprised that Simon Armitage is…
