Books
My family's better days
Simon Blow recalls the wealth, recklessness and beauty of his family’s better days
Butcher's Crossing is not at all like Stoner — but it's just as superbly written
John Williams’s brilliant 1965 novel, Stoner, was republished last year by Vintage to just, if surprisingly widespread, acclaim and went…
Is there a way to live without economic growth?
During Japan’s lost decade in the 1990s I found myself handing out rice balls to Tokyo’s homeless on the banks…
Breakdowns, suicide attempts — and four great novels
Among the clever young Australians who came over here in the 1960s to find themselves and make their mark, a…
'Where are the happy fictional spinsters?'
This book arose from an argument. Lifelong bookworm Samantha Ellis and her best friend had gone to Brontë country and…
Hugh Trevor-Roper, the man who hated uniformity
The arrival of a letter from Hugh Trevor-Roper initiated a whole series of pleasures. Pleasure began with the very look…
The 'semi-detached' member of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet
John Biffen was mentally ill. This is the outstanding revelation of Semi-Detached, a memoir which has been assembled from his…
At Kew
To Occupation Road again, a whole year nearer my own retirement now. The track slopes down past the Record Office…
The Angel of Charleston, by Stewart MacKay - review
Above the range in the kitchen at Charleston House is a painted inscription: ‘Grace Higgens worked here for 50 years…
Sound military history
Scott Fitzgerald once made the famous observation that there are no second acts in American life. Perhaps. But Mike Carlton…
At Kew
To Occupation Road again, a whole year nearer my own retirement now. The track slopes down past the Record Office…
At Kew
To Occupation Road again, a whole year nearer my own retirement now. The track slopes down past the Record Office…
'She's the most important Jewish writer since Kafka!'
Ian Thomson on the turbulent life of Clarice Lispector
This year, discover Michel Déon
In Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666, the efforts of an academic claque propel the mysterious German author Benno von Archimboldi onto…
What was the secret of Queen Victoria's rebel daughter?
Princess Louise (1848–1939), Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, was the prettiest and liveliest of the five princesses, and the only one…
The National Theatre Story by Daniel Rosenthal - review
In 1976, as the National Theatre moved into its new home on London’s South Bank, its literary manager Kenneth Tynan…
Dayshifts
The Man in the Moon will come on Tuesday. He will wear his grey hat and be travelling alone. Take…
Shostakovich, Leningrad, and the greatest story ever played
The horrors of the Leningrad siege — the 900 Days of Harrison Salisbury’s classic — have been pretty well picked…
Critics can be creative - look at Malcolm Cowley
Even Spectator book reviewers have to concede that their craft is inferior to the creative travail of authors. Henry James…
John Bellany: potent, prolific, patchy
When John Bellany died in August last year, an odyssey that had alternately beguiled and infuriated the art world came…
Books and Arts
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The persecution of Cory
Cory Bernardi’s book is a reminder of the traditional values that made Australia and inspired earlier generations to fight for…
Dayshifts
The Man in the Moon will come on Tuesday. He will wear his grey hat and be travelling alone. Take…
Dayshifts
The Man in the Moon will come on Tuesday. He will wear his grey hat and be travelling alone. Take…
How we lost the seasons
... for tomorrow traditional seasonal rituals may just be ghostly memories of a vanished world, says Melanie McDonagh
