Books
Books of the year II: more choices of reading in 2023
Recommendations from Mary Beard, Richard Ingrams, Sam Leith, Francis Wheen, Michela Wrong, William Dalrymple and many more
Not everything in the garden is lovely
For as long as we have been human, powerful chemicals in plants have provided us with stimulants, analgesics – and the means of murder
The best of this year’s gardening books
Authors reviewed include Jinny Blom on design, Jenny Joseph on scented plants, Maury C. Flannery on herbaria and Francis Pryor on his Fenland haven
Always carry a little book with you, and preserve it with great care, said Leonardo da Vinci
Despite the digitisation of everything, many of us still choose to jot down thoughts and sketches on paper, and would be bereft without a notebook to hand
Heart of Darkness revisited: The Dimensions of a Cave, by Greg Jackson, reviewed
Conrad’s classic is updated in this sinister tale of the US government’s involvement in a morally suspect virtual reality programme
The data-spew about Bob Dylan never ends
In his latest volume of biography, Clinton Heylin spares us no details about Dylan’s misogyny and cranky obsessions during his almighty midlife crisis
The shocking truth about adulterated wine: it was delicious
Provided it wasn’t actually poisonous, a beefed-up burgundy in the 1970s was often preferred to a weedy pure vintage pinot noir, says Rebecca Gibb
The misery of the Kindertransport children
Wrenched from their parents and familiar surroundings, the young refugees found safety in Britain, but were tolerated rather than cherished, says Andrea Hammel
Why did Jon Fosse win the Nobel Prize for literature? It’s baffling.
If Jon Fosse’s novels are experimental, they are experiments in exhausting banality, says Philip Hensher
Books of the year I: a choice of reading in 2023
Recommendations from Andrew Motion, Jonathan Sumption, A.N. Wilson, Andrea Wulf, Peter Frankopan, Clare Mulley and many others. To be continued next week
In search of utopia: Chevengur, by Andrey Platonov, reviewed
After crossing the vast steppe, Sasha Dvanov reaches an isolated town where the communist ideal appears to have been achieved. But at what cost?
The force of nature that drove Claude Monet
A compulsion to paint en plein air would remain with the great Impressionist for life, as well as a questing need to find new ways to express what he saw and felt
Escape into the wild: Run to the Western Shore, by Tim Pears, reviewed
A chieftain’s daughter flees an arranged marriage with the Roman governor of Britain, enlisting the help of slave and risking both their lives
Now imagine a white hole – a black hole’s time-reversed twin…
Just as you can enter a black hole without leaving it, you can exit a white hole without entering it – but first you must understand what black holes really are
Ordinary women make just as thrilling history as great men
Philippa Gregory investigates the lives of English women over 900 years – in sickness, health, business, war, prayer and prostitution
A Hindu Cromwell courteously decapitates hundreds of maharajas
Through a mix of charm, diplomacy and coercion, Sardar Patel, Nehru’s uncompromising deputy, ensured that 565 princely states vanished from the map of India in 1947
Nina Stibbe’s eye for the absurd is as sharp as ever
Back in London after an absence of 20 years, she’s no longer a literary outsider – but she’s still an acute observer, relishing the foibles of everyone she meets
Was the French Revolution inevitable?
It was clear for decades in France that unrest was steadily building before public anger finally exploded in the spring of 1789, says Ruth Scurr
The hell of the antebellum South: Let Us Descend, by Jesmyn Ward, reviewed
Teenage Annis and her enslaved mother endure beatings and rape as they are marched in chains to New Orleans to be sold to the latest brutal plantation owner
Thurston Moore relives the early days of Sonic Youth
Reminiscing about his many friends and colleagues in the 1970s, Moore even finds good things to say about the Dead Boys and Sid Vicious
Satirical pulp: The Possessed, by Witold Gombrowicz, reviewed
The 1939 Gothic pastiche which the author was at pains to distance himself from is now considered a delightfully devious work of Polish modernism
Anonymous caller: This Plague of Souls, by Mike McCormack, reviewed
A man returns to his remote rural home after an absence – to be greeted not by his family but a sinister stranger on the telephone
The golden age of Dutch art never ceases to amaze
Benjamin Moser reminds us of how freely painters borrowed each other’s subjects – and of how many of the greatest, including Rembrandt, died in poverty
‘The truth will make us free’: students on the march in post-war Europe
The radical Rudi Dutschke in 1960s Berlin and the angry Johnny Rotten in 1970s London are just two of the charismatic figures in this history of youth activism
‘We are stuck like chicken feathers to tar’: Elizabeth Taylor’s description of the fabled romance
The Burton-Taylor relationship was either one of the greatest love stories of all time or a suicide pact carried out in relentless slow motion