Books
Double vision
Charlotte Hobson describes the complicated relationship of two artists who championed simplicity
A spiritual meditation
‘One player on four strings, with a bow.’ That’s what Bach’s six Cello Suites boil down to, says Steven Isserlis.…
A passionate patriot
Americans regard George III as a power-crazed petty tyrant – but he was the very opposite, says Kate Maltby
A fine finale
Literary estates work to preserve a writer’s reputation — and sometimes milk it too. The appearance of this novel by…
Names, not numbers
If Joseph Stalin was right about one thing it was his assertion that ‘the death of one man is a…
God is everywhere
Twenty years ago The Corrections alerted a troubled world to the talents of Jonathan Franzen. Though cruel and funny and…
Perfect poise
The tide of survival bias has retreated and left the Anglepoise a design classic. Its contemporaries from the mid-1930s, a…
Let there be life
Philip Hensher finds this year’s Booker shortlist more concerned with serious world issues than vivid characterisation
Nonny nonny no
As a writer who obsesses over the right title to grab a target audience, seeing a book subtitled ‘Song Collectors…
Witching times
In the three centuries between 1450 and 1750 in Europe it is estimated that up to 100,000 women were burned,…
Doors to the past
E.H. Carr’s 1961 book What is History? has cast a long shadow over the discipline. I recall being assigned to…
The end of the affair
The story of the Cambridge spies has been served up so often that it has become stale — too detailed,…
We are all mysteries
‘Reading is a celebration of the mystery of ourselves,’ according to Elizabeth Strout, who writes to help readers understand themselves…
Hustlers and hoodlums
For modern America, Harlem is a once maligned, now much vaunted literary totem, which continues to occupy a gargantuan place…
The grandest dame
Eileen Atkins belongs to a singular generation of British actresses, among them Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Sian Phillips and Vanessa…
Disappointed in the Libs?
How might the centre-right do better? This is the question that the promising young writer Jake Thrupp has posed; and…
A devilish assignment
It has been 15 years since the last Richard Sharpe novel, and it’s a pleasure to report that fiction’s most…
Nature in the round
As the start date of COP26 draws closer, and just when we are assailed by daily proof of climate chaos,…
Pernicious patriarchy
UK grassroots feminism is flourishing at the moment, with the journalist Julie Bindel leading from the front as troublemaker-in-chief. In…
A delicate bargain
This very readable account of relations between the British intelligence services and the Crown does more than it says on…
Speed and stealth
Fast boats and fast women have been the ruin of many a poor boy. But they can also prove a…
The full spectrum
Honor Clerk explores the history of the world through colour, from the Stone Age to orbiting the Moon
Strength through adversity
We had been dreading it like (forgive me) the plague: the inevitable onslaught of corona-lit. Fortunately, the first few titles…
Chasing nostalgia
The true English disease is Downton Syndrome. Symptoms include a yearning for a past of chivalry, grandeur and unambiguously stratified…
Smudged with human stories
Nothing captures medieval life more vividly than a manuscript that has passed through many hands, says Jonathan Sumption
