Books
A multi-talented musician
On 17 May 1969 Leonard Bernstein ended his 12-year run as musical director of the New York Philharmonic with a…
A choice of cookery books
The people behind the people are the ones to watch for, and we have all been waiting for a book…
Struggling to keep up
Paul Fournel is a novelist, former publisher and French cultural attaché in London, and the provisionally definitive secretary and president…
No call a man dead til you bury him
Death is big business in parts of the Caribbean. In the Jamaican capital of Kingston, funeral homes with their plastic…
All money is in cyberspace anyway
Bitcoins are digital money ‘mined’ from satanically difficult mathematical problems. Madness, obviously. But five years ago, while the rest of…
Skirmishes on the home front
You might be forgiven for thinking that there is no need for yet another book about Margot Asquith. Her War…
Language
And when I landed in America, aged ten, I knew the language was the same. And yet At once the…
Algerian dystopia
On the surface Harraga is the story of two ill-matched women colliding dramatically, with life-changing consequences. What emerges, in throwaway…
From patient to doctor
Sabina Spielrein was a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with groundbreaking ideas about the role of the reproductive drive in human psychology…
The daily grind of the hunter-gather
In the early days of Victorian railways, train journeys were (rightly) considered so dangerous that ticket offices sold life insurance…
First Day of Spring in Bath
Quick-flowing creamy light and all cohering: Faux fanes in gardens, Nash and Wesley’s shades, Gold, gaily weighty houses, rocketing sky,…
Shock jock
A senior Minister in the NSW government of John Fahey once told me that there was a vacant metaphorical chair…
Children’s books for Christmas
If it’s all right with you, I’d like to launch a campaign please. Right here. You may be wanting me…
Language
And when I landed in America, aged ten, I knew the language was the same. And yet At once the…
First Day of Spring in Bath
Quick-flowing creamy light and all cohering: Faux fanes in gardens, Nash and Wesley’s shades, Gold, gaily weighty houses, rocketing sky,…
Children’s books for Christmas
If it’s all right with you, I’d like to launch a campaign please. Right here. You may be wanting me…
Language
And when I landed in America, aged ten, I knew the language was the same. And yet At once the…
First Day of Spring in Bath
Quick-flowing creamy light and all cohering: Faux fanes in gardens, Nash and Wesley’s shades, Gold, gaily weighty houses, rocketing sky,…
Books and arts
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Books of the Year
A further selection of the best and most overrated books of 2014, chosen by some of our regular reviewers
The wandering Jew
Stefan Zweig wasn’t, to be honest, a very good writer. This delicious fact was hugged to themselves by most of…
Scotland the brave
In 1707 Scotland surrendered what it had of its independence by the Treaty of Union with England. That independence had…























