Books

Attack of the night witches

11 April 2015 9:00 am

The name Lyuba Vinogradova may not ring any bells, but her ferrety eye for spotting a telling detail may already…

The importance of illustration: Babar et le Professeur Grifaton by Laurent de Brunhoff

Putting away the fear of childishness

11 April 2015 9:00 am

Go to any bookshop — always supposing you’re fortunate enough to have any left in your neck of the woods…

Too Many Poets

11 April 2015 9:00 am

Too many poets pack a line with thought But melody refuses to take wing. It’s not that meaning has been…

The mask of death

11 April 2015 9:00 am

Remember Ebola? It killed more than 8,000 people last year — before we were all Charlie — with a quarter…

King John at Runnymede: at odds with his barons, he came to rely on mercenaries whom he couldn’t afford

Just sign here…

11 April 2015 9:00 am

This being the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta, it is not surprising that there should be two…

What’s to become of Pedro Friedeberg’s letters?

11 April 2015 9:00 am

Duncan Fallowell on the elusive Mexican artist and man-of-letters who has been his friend and faithful correspondent over many years —  though they have never met

The man who fell to earth: Marcello Mastroianni as Fellini’s alter ego in the magical ‘8½’

Books and arts

11 April 2015 9:00 am

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What’s to become of Pedro Friedeberg’s letters?

9 April 2015 1:00 pm

The year 2015 has been designated one of Anglo-Mexican amity, with celebrations planned in both countries by both governments. But…

Too Many Poets

9 April 2015 1:00 pm

Too many poets pack a line with thought But melody refuses to take wing. It’s not that meaning has been…

What’s to become of Pedro Friedeberg’s letters?

9 April 2015 1:00 pm

The year 2015 has been designated one of Anglo-Mexican amity, with celebrations planned in both countries by both governments. But…

Too Many Poets

9 April 2015 1:00 pm

Too many poets pack a line with thought But melody refuses to take wing. It’s not that meaning has been…

RAMC stretcher-bearers from the South Eastern Mounted Brigade enter the Field Ambulance dressing station at Y Ravine. Picture courtesy of Stephen Chambers

Evil under the sun

4 April 2015 9:00 am

Peter Parker discerns classical allusion amid the horror in two books commemorating the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign

Rex Whistler’s portrait of Edith Olivier on a day bed at Daye House, Wilton, 1942

The gypsy and the swan

4 April 2015 9:00 am

Rex Whistler — this book’s ‘bright young thing’ — was an artist of the 1920s and 1930s, and Edith Olivier,…

The unstable element

4 April 2015 9:00 am

Madness is an ancient, evidently inscrutable mystery, often regarded with superstitious fear, yet can provide a refuge from reality. Sometimes,…

The decisive moment

4 April 2015 9:00 am

The short story likes to play the underdog. Famously unfavoured by publishers, it has none of the commercial clout of…

For the sake of argument

4 April 2015 9:00 am

Madison Flight is a divorce lawyer, nicknamed ‘the Chair-Scraper’ for the number of times she leaps to her feet arguing…

A John Craske painting from the Sylvia Townsend Warner Collection

The lonely sea and the sky

4 April 2015 9:00 am

In the manner of Richard Holmes’s Footsteps, Julia Blackburn’s story of John Craske is as much autobiography as biography, as…

Giotto’s ‘The Kiss of Judas’ in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua

Villains of the gospels

4 April 2015 9:00 am

Peter Stanford is a writer on religious and ethical matters. He was for four years editor of the Catholic Herald.…

The ass saw the angel

4 April 2015 9:00 am

I suppose all children’s authors write the stories they would have liked to read as children. But in the case of…

Ghost Hands

4 April 2015 8:00 am

Sant’Apollinaire Nuovo, Ravenna Your hands brush marble, feel impelled   To touch where crisp cold tesserae    Compose a fine array Of…

‘Watercolour of the tiny boat with big sea and sky’ by John Craske

Books and arts

4 April 2015 8:00 am

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

Ghost Hands

2 April 2015 2:00 pm

Sant’Apollinaire Nuovo, Ravenna Your hands brush marble, feel impelled   To touch where crisp cold tesserae    Compose a fine array Of…

Ghost Hands

2 April 2015 2:00 pm

Sant’Apollinaire Nuovo, Ravenna Your hands brush marble, feel impelled   To touch where crisp cold tesserae    Compose a fine array Of…

Fifty shades of grey wolf

28 March 2015 9:00 am

Locate. Stalk. Encounter. Rush. Chase. The pace of Sarah Hall’s fifth novel follows the five stages of a wolf hunt…

Charles Dodgson

Thank heaven for little girls

28 March 2015 9:00 am

A.S. Byatt explores the dark alternatives to innocence in Lewis Carroll’s deeply disturbing looking-glass world