Books
Ice Sculpture
If I begged you to, would you hitchhike to the ice-sculpture factory, where the drunken cow was just presented, and…
Ice Sculpture
If I begged you to, would you hitchhike to the ice-sculpture factory, where the drunken cow was just presented, and…
Out of his depth
There are individuals who, when fate hands them the opportunity for greatness, have risen to the challenge. Rob Oakeshott was…
The incredible journey
Sam Leith marvels at a lone horseman’s 10,000-mile ride, braving bandits, quicksands, vampire bats and revolution in search of ‘variety’
The cardinal and the con artist
You usually know where you are with a book that promises the story ‘would violate the laws of plausibility’ if…
To the lighthouse
Elements of Raffaella Barker’s new novel, her eighth for adults, suggest commercial fiction: a narrative that oscillates between the aftermath…
Shorthand
Might you not have found him a little exhausting, though? If, for example, you were his mother, not given to…
Opéra bouffe in New Hampshire
There ought to be a comic opera about the Bretton Woods conference — Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face, about Margaret,…
The call of the wild
‘No, no’ I said, when The Spectator’s literary editor rang up, ‘I’m sure you must be able to find someone…
Rags, riches and respectability
In a grand history of the British empire — because that is what this book really is — you might…
How to survive totalitarianism
When this extraordinary book was about to come out in French four years ago its author was told by his…
Books and arts
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Shorthand
Might you not have found him a little exhausting, though? If, for example, you were his mother, not given to…
Shorthand
Might you not have found him a little exhausting, though? If, for example, you were his mother, not given to…
Fabled splendours
Peter Parker on the age-old allure of the Indian subcontinent
The good companion
P.J. Kavanagh, if not dismissed or relegated, is often shall we say bracketed, as a ‘nature poet’. The truth is,…
The crimson petal and the white
When I took up archery it was a relatively niche sport. Then Game of Thrones came along, and everyone wanted…
A choice of children’s books
A children’s author and illustrator, Jonathan Emmet, created a stir recently by saying that women are effectively gatekeepers of children’s…
Nights at the Opéra
Stephen Clarke lives in Paris and writes book with titles such as 1,000 Years of Annoying the French. Dirty Bertie…
A modern Mark Twain
The American writer, Charles Portis, has had what some novelists — the more purist ones — might regard as an…
Smiles and grimaces
Readers familiar with Nicola Barker’s hyper-caffeinated style will be surprised by the almost serene first few chapters of her latest…
Simply not Kricket
Why have the Germans never been any good at cricket? This entertaining account of the MCC’s 1937 tour to the…
Making hay …
This book is a portrait of one man’s meadow. Our now almost vanished meadowland, with its tapestry of wildflowers, abundant…
… and history in the Welsh Marches
The Welsh Marches, gloriously unvisited amid their wooded hills and swift-flowing streams, have remained mysteriously off-limits to the sort of…
When the Rains Came
When the rains continued the rivers rebelled, the swans moved inland and even the bank was sandbagged and we saw…
