Books
Genocidal thoughts
It takes a certain type of courage for a writer to complete a book and then admit that he does…
Goodman’s Garden
Where did they all go? Thickets of love and pain rustle in a dry light and skeins of corvidae traipse…
Title Stories: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas
The post Title Stories: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join…
Goodman’s Garden
Where did they all go? Thickets of love and pain rustle in a dry light and skeins of corvidae traipse…
Title Stories: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
The rough end of Europe
Michael Pye appears out of his depth in a cold, grey sea in the mists of time, says Adam Nicolson
All that jazz
This is a big book, a monumental text with 800 illustrations, 400 of them in colour, to be contemplated more…
The worm turns
Something odd happened between the advance publicity for this book and its printed appearance. Trailed as addressing the troubled history…
Dwelling in marble halls
Phrases such as ‘Some aspects of…’ are death at the box-office, so it is not exactly unknown for the titles…
Living life as a fictional character
Early on in this ‘Biography in Conversations’ we’re told that the Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño ‘continued to see himself throughout…
It was a wonderful town
I picked up this book with real enthusiasm. Who cannot be entranced by those 20 years after the second world…
O Jerusalem!
Unchosen is the journalist Julie Burchill’s account of how she — a bright and bratty working-class girl from Bristol —…
Mother Courage
Italo Calvino, the Italian arch-fabulist, wrote a foreword to this celebrated wartime diary when it appeared in Italy in 1956.…
Autumn Shades
They start to say autumnal in the forecasts, And on the Northern Line the shifting panels Look bleached already. I…
Garlands of repose
It is a truism that writers of all kinds often find inspiration and solace in their gardens, as well as…
Yesterday’s hero
The unforgettable moment a quarter of a century ago when the Berlin Wall came down was the most vivid drama…
The greatest sitcom never made
Funny Girl is the story of the early career of the vivacious, hilarious Sophie Straw, star of the much-loved BBC…
Short of a feast
Rose Tremain walks on water. Her historical novels are absolutely marvellous, brilliantly plotted, witty and wise, with some of the…
Angry old woman
If Stalin had been a theatre director he’d have resembled Joan Littlewood. What an outstandingly unpleasant woman she was —…
Title Stories: The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
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Home-grown sage
Economics is known as ‘the dismal science’, and certainly there have been — and indeed are — economists whose day…
To my father, solicitor to the landed gentry
If you were still alive You would be ninety-six tomorrow. I think of you most days. Just now, for example,…
Books and arts
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Autumn Shades
They start to say autumnal in the forecasts, And on the Northern Line the shifting panels Look bleached already. I…
To my father, solicitor to the landed gentry
If you were still alive You would be ninety-six tomorrow. I think of you most days. Just now, for example,…
