A visit from the left-whingers
The Americans wanted an argument and they weren’t going to take no, or indeed yes, for an answer. They arrived…
Is Grey Gardens the greatest documentary ever made?
A middle-aged woman wearing what looks like Princess Diana’s infamous ‘revenge dress’ and a balaclava from an IRA funeral approaches…
The cultification of science
My, how we all laughed. Thirty years ago the physicist Alan Sokal hoaxed a social science journal into publishing a…
The makers of Doc don’t seem to trust the show
The drama series Doc began with the most literal of bangs. While the screen remained black, the sound-effects team knocked…
Dear Mary: Help! My neighbour knows I lied about her daughter’s wedding photos
Q. I have been booked to give my first talk on my field of professional interest. I happen to have…
When Freud met Hitler
A new play by Lawrence Marks and Maurice Gran, the writers of Birds of a Feather, feels like a major…
Letters: The shale gas illusion
The shale illusion Sir: Your leading article rightly makes the case for extracting as much of our North Sea resources…
A portrait of alienation: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, by Kiran Desai, reviewed
Two lovers from wealthy families in Allahabad contend with powerful forces of ambition, corruption, neighbouring feuds and sexual violence
Even now, Nick Clegg offers too little too late
In contrast to Sarah Wynn-Williams’s tell-all memoir of life at Facebook published earlier this year, Clegg’s ponderous account of his time at Meta is barely a tell-anything
The mystery of Rapa Nui’s moai may be solved
The vast, painstakingly carved stone figures are thought to represent ancestors – and their partial destruction to signify punishment for their failure as guardians
Is China riding for a fall?
Dan Wang contrasts the dynamism of China’s physical engineering programme with the madness of its social engineering – the one-child policy threatening to prove a demographic disaster
My husband first and last – by Lalla Romano
In a touching memoir, Romano describes a shared intellectual life with Innocenzo Monti, from their first meeting in the Piedmont mountains to their final months together
The short, restless life of Robert Louis Stevenson
The frail but hugely successful writer broke away from his Presbyterian roots to pursue a life of travel before finally settling with his wife in remote Samoa
The concept of ‘the West’ seems to mean anything you like
First formulated by Auguste Comte in the 19th century, its later proponents would even embrace Japan while questioning the inclusion of belligerent Germany
