Books
Hysterical accusations
‘Witch-hunt’ has become a handy metaphor for online persecutions, especially of women, though these days it is reputations that go…
Movers and shakers
Anthony Sattin begins with a quotation from Bruce Chatwin, who famously tried all his life to produce a book about…
The virtue of restraint
Louise Perry is on a mission: ‘It wasn’t enough just to point out the problems with our new sexual culture,’…
Going the whole hog
A popular pastime in Britain is to post one’s breakfast on social media for strangers to pass judgment on bacon…
Wolves in sheep’s clothing
To study international politics since the turn of the century has been, in large part, to study the changing nature…
Escape from drudgery
Shunned by his father and his peers because of his homosexuality, Édouard Louis (born Eddy Bellegueule in 1992) left his village…
A study of Scarlett
Selfish, acquisitive, ignorant and vain, Gone with the Wind’s heroine not only resembles Donald Trump – she may even be his role model, says Greg Garrett
A shared mission
The concept of vaccination evolved from 18th-century inoculation practices and many people contributed to the accretion of knowledge. This book…
All roads lead to Dublin
I do not think I am alone in confessing that I had read critical works on James Joyce before I…
A very tangled web
Vanessa Salomon is an internationally successful translator. Clever, beautiful, privileged – ‘born in a trilingual household: French, English and money’…
The great arbitrator
‘The law,’ according to W.S. Gilbert’s Lord Chancellor, ‘is the true embodiment of everything that’s excellent’ and, by common consent,…
Remember forget-me-nots?
‘There are a great many ways of holding on to our sanity amid the vices and follies of the world,’…
The lady vanishes
This is a depressing book. It’s a reminder of everything that is sick, broken and generally maledicted about the human…
A real game changer
The moment before the fall of women’s football can be precisely dated. On Boxing Day 1920, Dick, Kerr Ladies FC…
The horror unfolds
No one had prepared the Allied soldiers, as they began their invasion of the Reich early in 1945, for what…
No blame, no shame
If MI5 had a Cold War file on you – paper in those happy days – it didn’t mean they…
The power and the glory
Geography, climate, economics and nationalism are often seen as decisive forces in history. In this dynamic, original and convincing book…
The wild, wide fen
‘To talk about Crabbe is to talk about England,’ E.M. Forster declared in a radio broadcast in May 1941, but…
An interplay of voices
Margo Jefferson’s Constructing a Nervous System compresses memoir and cultural criticism into one slim, explosive volume, and in doing so…
An immorality tale
Has there been a better novel this century than Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation? There might not…
The last governor
After 13 years in parliament, rising star Chris Patten had the bad luck to be one of the few Tory…
Animal magic
With the technologies at our disposal, we can in fact now know what it’s like to be a bat, says Caspar Henderson
Into thin air
Mark Vanhoenacker dreams of my nightmares. Ever since he was a young boy, he fantasised about piloting airplanes. Ever since…
Modest expectations
A Little Hope, Ethan Joella’s debut novel, is about the lives of a dozen or so ordinary people who live…
The silent muse
Jane Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites’ favourite model, remains as enigmatic as ever, says Frances Wilson
