A princely paragon
This is a giant Teutonic forest of a book, to be progressed through with determination as if by seasoned infantry;…
The mesh of life
Lizzie, the narrator of Jenny Offill’s impressive third novel Weather, is ‘enmeshed’ with her brother, according to her psychologist-cum-meditation teacher.…
Don’t judge an album by its cover
Everything about Kraftwerk was odd. They had no front man, they seemed to play no instruments and their strange, electronic…
The restless spirit of the Enlightenment
Emily Thomas is a distinguished academic philosopher who has ‘spent a lot of time by herself getting lost around the…
Raw reality TV
The context for The Hungry and the Fat, Timur Vermes’s new satirical novel, is not as far-fetched as all that.…
Back to the future
Between 1923 and 1931 the publisher Routledge produced ‘Today and Tomorrow’, a series of 110 short books by intellectual luminaries…
The white man’s a burden
The scope of Petina Gappah’s impressive novel is laid out in the prologue: the death of the Victorian explorer David…
The world’s melting pot
Every history of London — and there have been very many — has looked at the importance for the city…
A feminist awakening
For those of us with nagging doubts about the value of literary biography, books that show the biographer at work…
Love lies bleeding
Dear Life arrives at a time when the public appetite for the personal accounts of medical insiders shows no sign…
Tales of the Underground
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s debut novel transports us to antebellum Virginia, when the tobacco wealth of years gone by is dwindling, due…
On the offensive
Mark Mason talks to Clive Anderson about mistaken identity, Macbeth and making a career out of being a bit of a smartarse
Made for telly
It’s a sweltering night in Manhattan, circa 1947, and on the doorstep of a brownstone tenement three women are waiting…
Running on empty
Steve McQueen’s ‘Static’ (2009) impresses through its sheer directness — and it’s very far from static. A succession of helicopter-tracking…
Beckett would approve
An office worker stands on the ledge of an open window about to leap. Two colleagues enter, ignoring him completely.…
The appeal of psychopaths
Ever since the end of Gomorrah season four (Sky Atlantic) I have been bereft. I eked it out for as…
Justin Bieber: Changes
Grade: D– For my first review of popular music releases in 2020 I thought I’d deposit this large vat of…
Greed is bad
Greed is Michael Winterbottom’s satire on the obscenely rich and, in particular, a billionaire, asset-stripping retail tycoon whose resemblance to…
High Life
Gstaad I was not aware that there is a group of Spectatorfans who meet in French-speaking Switzerland. They contacted me…
Low life
Seven round the table for dinner. Wild mushroom risotto. I was told to sit next to Michael. Good. Michael makes…
Real life
Mr Benn has been in touch because he wants a right of reply to an article I wrote about my…
The turf
Few jumpers have a better record at Ascot than the Paul Nicholls-trained Cyrname. He triumphed in the Betfair Chase at…
Bridge
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when the Rimstedts and their children get together over supper. One…
Confidence tricks
Three consecutive losses in a tournament is dryly termed ‘castling queenside’, in reference to the chess notation for that move…
No. 592
Black to play, Kateryna Lagno–Ju Wenjun, February 2020. Material is approximately balanced, but White’s king is in serious danger. What…
