Books
Too much and much too long: The Rouse by China Miéville, reviewed
Miéville’s new novel has taken more than a decade to write and now we can see why: it is 1,264 pages long. The initial 190 pages could have been a standalone novel but instead it continues, the style more ornate and ormolu as it goes on
Worried about masculinity: from turrets and gargoyles to the state of men
Ronson uses the story of the very strange Chris Mark as a springboard into one of the hotter subjects of the day. The terrain may be familiar but it is nevertheless intelligent, engaging and funny
Curiouser and curiouser: The Strangers by Naomi Alderman, reviewed
This aptly titled novel might be Alderman’s weirdest book yet – a cross between a work of fiction and a memoir, whose main character, called Naomi Alderman, says gave her ‘a kind of freedom with both forms’
Mind the gaps: a far-from comprehensive life of Hannah Arendt
A much-acclaimed German ‘biography’ of the Jewish exile from Königsberg who became one of the most influential political and social thinkers of the postwar decades spurns chronology in favour of thematic commentary
In with the new: Julie Christie, Mary Quant, Up the Junction – the decade that changed Britain
The 18 months covered in the latest volume of David Kynaston’s magnum opus contain some of the defining moments of the whole postwar period
A life lived to the hilt: Clare Consuelo Sheridan
The daughter of an American heiress and first cousin to Winston Churchill suffered penury and widowhood but went on to lead an extraordinary life as a sculptor, author, journalist and Soviet sympathiser who had affairs with H.G. Wells, Trotsky, Charlie Chaplin, Ataturk and Mussolini among many others
For better, for worse: Death Do Us by Ruthy Mason reviewed
Underwhelmed by the prospect of her future marriage, Bea focuses on the past instead, reconnecting with a former boyfriend and reliving dark events from her undergraduate life. Past and present blur uneasily together and the reader is kept cleverly in suspense
Stop moaning and do something: the active vs the passive voice
The story of a friendship and the challenges that arise from different ways of dealing with shared political opinions. Two women bond over anger about world injustice but fall out over how to combat it
Pongs of praise: the history and importance of smell for our antisceptic age
That a modern obsession with hygiene has taken smell from us, as have contemporary furnishings, are key takeaways from two books containing reams of delightful facts on all matters olfactory
First among equals: what makes a great leader and does it matter?
Jared Diamond applies a distinctive approach to a crowded literary space, employing his ‘Hamlet test’ to assess leadership quality. He nominates Shakespeare, the first president of Botswana, Alex Ferguson and the Mormons as his top picks, while acknowledging that there are many other factors to success that tilt the scales
A succession of selves: How Do People Stay the Same by Mark Bowles reviewed
A sad novel with funny moments that tells its story via a series of reverse-ordered journal entries. First, the happy ending, then a progression backwards through more troubling times, getting remarkably close to the messy truth of life along the way
Double jeopardy: the story of history’s most audacious KGB defector
The year is 1979, the place, Tehran, in the wake of the Iranian revolution and a key battleground of the Cold War. Enter ‘Redwood’, a towering Russian with access to Soviet intelligence secrets plus a devastating one of his own
She lived frantically ever after: the jaw-dropping life of Barbara Cartland
Most people’s lives contain vast swathes of boredom but not Cartland’s. Every page of this biography is a cliff-hanger: pistols are forever going off, legs are amputated, proposals are made at gunpoint and suicides are two a penny
Few writers have covered their tracks as successfully as Anita Brookner
The distinguished art historian and novelist shredded as many private papers as she could, leaving her biographer the daunting task of piecing together clues from published material
The horror that emerges from the columns of Domesday Book
William the Conqueror’s Great Inquest codified one of the most ruthless land grabs in history, with the obliteration of 5,000 Saxon noblemen and the collective punishment of England’s native peoples
Why we should never be afraid to ask questions
Questions have always played a vital role when it comes to learning and connection. But we now live in a world that increasingly just wants answers, warns Lani Watson
Language lessons: Taipei Story, by Rebecca Kuang, reviewed
Lily Chen, a Chinese-American Yale student, hopes to master Mandarin on a summer course in Taiwan. But matters soon begin to unravel in this idiosyncratic coming-of-age story
The trouble with communism began with Plato
The elite guardians of his envisioned Kallipolis, where private property was banned, were protected by auxiliaries who sound not dissimilar to the KGB or the Stasi
Surviving the Dresden firestorm: Slaughterhouse-Five revisited
Susan Farrell explores the genesis and afterlife of Kurt Vonnegut’s great anti-war novel
From ballrooms to billets – the fate of our country houses and their owners in wartime
Judith Lewis focuses on how wives and daughters, left in charge of ancestral homes, coped with vandalism, dispossession and even ruin as a result of requisition in the second world war
Sad girl story: Sophie, Standing There, by Meg Mason, reviewed
Thirtysomething Sophie Pattison worships the celebrated author Lilac Dunne from afar. But what will happen when the two actually meet at a literary festival?
Emmanuel Carrère’s obsession with his mother’s duplicity borders on fanaticism
The French writer continues to delve into painful family history and the cover-up of his grandfather’s collaboration with the Nazis
An excellent spy: Cold Sunset, by William Boyd, reviewed
Tasked with exfiltrating a secret agent from Moscow, Gabriel Dax shows himself as competent as ever: good at following people, good at laying traps and good at shooting to kill
We must stop treating soil like dirt
Frank Ashwood’s illuminating guide to the hidden world beneath our feet convinces us of its complexity, vulnerability and supreme importance to all life
The wonder of ancient English parish churches
From Saxon sundials to medieval Doom paintings, our village churches hold the key to English art, history, architecture, character and even language
