Books

At Kew

16 January 2014 3:00 pm

To Occupation Road again, a whole year nearer my own retirement now. The track slopes down past the Record Office…

At Kew

16 January 2014 3:00 pm

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!'

11 January 2014 9:00 am

Ian Thomson on the turbulent life of Clarice Lispector

This year, discover Michel Déon

11 January 2014 9:00 am

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?

11 January 2014 9:00 am

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

11 January 2014 9:00 am

In 1976, as the National Theatre moved into its new home on London’s South Bank, its literary manager Kenneth Tynan…

Dayshifts

11 January 2014 9:00 am

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

11 January 2014 9:00 am

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

11 January 2014 9:00 am

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

11 January 2014 9:00 am

When John Bellany died in August last year, an odyssey that had alternately beguiled and infuriated the art world came…

Books and Arts

11 January 2014 9:00 am

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The persecution of Cory

11 January 2014 9:00 am

Cory Bernardi’s book is a reminder of the traditional values that made Australia and inspired earlier generations to fight for…

Dayshifts

9 January 2014 3:00 pm

The Man in the Moon will come on Tuesday. He will wear his grey hat and be travelling alone. Take…

Dayshifts

9 January 2014 3:00 pm

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

4 January 2014 9:00 am

... for tomorrow traditional seasonal rituals may just be ghostly memories of a vanished world, says Melanie McDonagh

The Roth of tenderness and of rage

4 January 2014 9:00 am

In the autumn of 2012, Philip Roth told a French magazine that his latest book, Nemesis, would be his last.…

Forgiveness

4 January 2014 9:00 am

The bunting was hardly down, and the bones of the feast hardly buried in sand, when the prodigal son started…

Do Manet's asparagus remind you of your struggling long-term relationship?

4 January 2014 9:00 am

In calling their book Art as Therapy Alain de Botton and John Armstrong have taken the direct route. They’re not…

Finally, a celebrity memoir worth reading

4 January 2014 9:00 am

Unlike many celebrity memoirs, Anjelica Huston’s is worth reading. In her Prologue she writes that as a child she modeled…

The many attempts to assassinate Trotsky

4 January 2014 9:00 am

Leon Trotsky’s grandson, Esteban Volkov, is a retired chemist in his early eighties. I met him not long ago in…

An utterly charming, totally bonkers short novel

4 January 2014 9:00 am

This utterly charming, totally bonkers short novel is something from another age. There are elements of A Handful of Dust…

The food of love

4 January 2014 9:00 am

The Albek Duo are two astonishingly beautiful and talented Venetian musicians, Fiona and Ambra, who are identical twins. Hearing the…

Our colourful stories

4 January 2014 9:00 am

That’s girt by sea, as in the national anthem. As a title, it fits the overall tone of the book,…

Books and Arts

14 December 2013 9:00 am

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How honest was Bernard Berenson?

14 December 2013 9:00 am

Sam Leith suspects that even such a distinguished connoisseur as Bernard Berenson did not always play a straight bat