Books
Last-minute reprieve
A bully-boy leader. A corrupt, out-of-touch regime. A twisted reading of history. An unprovoked, military-led landgrab. A domestic disinformation blitz.…
A dicey business
When I was 14 my father took me to a bookmaker’s and encouraged me to place a bet. He wanted…
A crooks’ paradise
The war in Ukraine has turned a lot of people’s attention to oligarchs in the UK. How did these guys…
Character is king
Thriller writers are hard pressed to stand out in what’s become a very crowded field. As a result, from Cardiff…
All England in a little room
In the tight dark maze of alleys that wind between the Thames and St Paul’s the pleasures of the living…
An accidental hero
Ferdinand Magellan’s fame was largely undeserved. Horatio Clare sees the explorer cut down to size
Enduring legends
Once upon a time there was a collection of stories that everybody loved. They involved brave heroes such as Perseus…
Gone but not forgotten
Take a walk in the English countryside and you get the impression that little has changed. The churches and farmhouses,…
Driven into the ground
Remember ashtrays in cars? Soon cars will themselves become objects of wet-eyed nostalgic reverie. A thrilling era of propelling ourselves,…
Dons and rebels
Paula Byrne describes life at Oxford University in its eccentric heyday
Bombs over Belfast
Caught outside at the start of a raid in the Belfast Blitz as the incendiary bombs rain down, Audrey looks…
A controlling monster
If vivid, drily hilarious tales about messy families stuffed with passive aggression and seething resentment are your thing, you will…
Knotty problems
Anne Tyler’s 24th novel French Braid opens in 2010 in Philadelphia train station. We find the teenage Serena, who has…
Which Mary is which?
Is there a patron saint of conjecture? Perhaps it is a name known only to Bible scholars, who have rich…
An awful warning
Sins of My Father begins with an ending. Describing her 61-year-old parent’s final desperate flight from a life of vibrant…
Cold comfort
The story of the five women waiting at home for Captain Scott and his doomed polar party is naturally occluded…
Mission accomplished
Nigel Farage was never even an MP, but Michael Crick argues convincingly that he is one of the top five…
The making of a murderer
Were it not for an event on the night of 14 April 1865, John Wilkes Booth would be remembered, if…
Merlin’s stones
When it comes to Stonehenge, we are like children continually asking why and never getting a conclusive answer. There are…
The lady vanishes
How to review a book that pokes fun at critics? When the protagonist of María Gainza’s Portrait of an Unknown…
A magical epic
When the first volume of Marlon James’s Dark Star trilogy appeared in 2019, it was quickly recognised as a masterly…
From the Gauls to the Gilets Jaunes
Philip Hensher is enthralled by Graham Robb’s evocative new history of France
The trauma of conquest
By any yardstick, the Norman Conquest was a ghastly business. Within two decades, the English aristocracy had been more than…
The heart bleeds
‘CERTIFICATE IS NOT EVIDENCE OF IDENTITY,’ the freshly issued death certificate read. In the craziness and shock of grief for…
The making of a poet
Charles Causley was a poet’s poet. Both Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin considered him the finest candidate for the laureateship,…
