Books
Under cover in the underworld
W.H. Auden was addicted to detective fiction. In his 1948 essay ‘The Guilty Vicarage’, he analysed the craving, which he…
Finding a new way to live
In Colm Tóibín’s much-loved 2009 novel Brooklyn, Eilis Lacy, somewhat to her own surprise, leaves 1950s Enniscorthy (Tóibín’s own home…
The greatest living Yorkshireman
After 13 barren years Yorkshire is back at the top of county cricket, where Geoffrey Boycott believes it has a…
Ashes to ashes
The ash tree may lack the solidity of oak, the magnificence of beech or the ancient mystique of yew. In…
Perils of a charmed life
In these diaries, which I found excellent in a very specific way, Michael Palin tells us about his life between…
Practically perfect in every way
If there were a harvest festival to honour the bounty of the autumnal book crop, the choir would be in…
Dirty dealing
Jonathan Powell is best known as Tony Blair’s fixer. He was intimately involved with the Northern Ireland peace process, about…
The Afterlives of the Anarchists
Those staples in their foursquare silver strips Stacked upwards like some brutalist Manhattan office block Were teased apart by fingertips…
Kissing cousins
Even ardent Mitfordians must quake at the sight of yet another biography of the sisterhood. There have been more forests…
A series of impressionist strokes
When she was four, Anne Sinclair had her portrait painted by Marie Laurencin. It is a charming picture, a little…
Make or break
Us, David Nicholls’s first novel since the hugely successful One Day, is about a couple who have been married for…
Books and arts
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Racy reading
In a field which is often characterised by polemics and hand-wringing, Noel Pearson has emerged as both a considered thinker…
The Afterlives of the Anarchists
Those staples in their foursquare silver strips Stacked upwards like some brutalist Manhattan office block Were teased apart by fingertips…
Title Stories: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain
The post Title Stories: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain appeared first on The Spectator. Got something…
The Afterlives of the Anarchists
Those staples in their foursquare silver strips Stacked upwards like some brutalist Manhattan office block Were teased apart by fingertips…
Title Stories: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Love letters for the world
Vladimir Nabokov was happily married for over 50 years and rarely apart from his wife. More’s the pity, discovers Philip Hensher
Head Beaters
Ah, democracy. The informed will of the majority. If only the practice was as simple as the theory. When it…
Looking and listening
Surely only a double-act of the stature of Philippe de Montebello, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from…
Values
The final way we’re held to account is the standing order we never chose. To whatever our lives might amount,…
Boastful and bored
Has there ever been a nun or a priest who wasn’t a bent sadist? Because here we go again. At…
Title Stories: ‘Sketches by Boz’ by Charles Dickens
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Drama in the mouth
It would be a mistake to treat Plenty More, the new cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi, merely as a collection of…
I believe in yesterday
Alan Johnson’s first volume of memoirs, This Boy, is still in the bestsellers’ list, but the Stakhanovite postman has made…
