Books
Books and Arts
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Playing fast and loose
Simon Blow recalls the wealth, recklessness and beauty of his family’s better days
Into the valley of death
John Williams’s brilliant 1965 novel, Stoner, was republished last year by Vintage to just, if surprisingly widespread, acclaim and went…
An awful warning
During Japan’s lost decade in the 1990s I found myself handing out rice balls to Tokyo’s homeless on the banks…
Tortured genius
Among the clever young Australians who came over here in the 1960s to find themselves and make their mark, a…
A dangerous heroine addiction
This book arose from an argument. Lifelong bookworm Samantha Ellis and her best friend had gone to Brontë country and…
A don delights
The arrival of a letter from Hugh Trevor-Roper initiated a whole series of pleasures. Pleasure began with the very look…
The curiosity in the cabinet
John Biffen was mentally ill. This is the outstanding revelation of Semi-Detached, a memoir which has been assembled from his…
At Kew
To Occupation Road again, a whole year nearer my own retirement now. The track slopes down past the Record Office…
At home with the Bloomsberries
Above the range in the kitchen at Charleston House is a painted inscription: ‘Grace Higgens worked here for 50 years…
Sound military history
Scott Fitzgerald once made the famous observation that there are no second acts in American life. Perhaps. But Mike Carlton…
At Kew
To Occupation Road again, a whole year nearer my own retirement now. The track slopes down past the Record Office…
At Kew
To Occupation Road again, a whole year nearer my own retirement now. The track slopes down past the Record Office…
‘The most important Jewish writer since Kafka’
Ian Thomson on the turbulent life of Clarice Lispector
A boy on a bicycle
In Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666, the efforts of an academic claque propel the mysterious German author Benno von Archimboldi onto…
We were not amused
Princess Louise (1848–1939), Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, was the prettiest and liveliest of the five princesses, and the only one…
One drama after another
In 1976, as the National Theatre moved into its new home on London’s South Bank, its literary manager Kenneth Tynan…
Dayshifts
The Man in the Moon will come on Tuesday. He will wear his grey hat and be travelling alone. Take…
The magnificent Seventh
The horrors of the Leningrad siege — the 900 Days of Harrison Salisbury’s classic — have been pretty well picked…
Elder statesman of the Republic of Letters
Even Spectator book reviewers have to concede that their craft is inferior to the creative travail of authors. Henry James…
Great Scot
When John Bellany died in August last year, an odyssey that had alternately beguiled and infuriated the art world came…
Books and Arts
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
The persecution of Cory
Cory Bernardi’s book is a reminder of the traditional values that made Australia and inspired earlier generations to fight for…
Dayshifts
The Man in the Moon will come on Tuesday. He will wear his grey hat and be travelling alone. Take…
Dayshifts
The Man in the Moon will come on Tuesday. He will wear his grey hat and be travelling alone. Take…
