Trapped in hell
In an understated gem of a book, Marwa al-Sabouni, an architect from Homs, describes a country ripped apart. Foreign correspondents Janine di Giovanni and Charles Glass do the same.
To be a pilgrim
To make the pilgrimage less grim, avoid the Pyrenees — and your fellow travellers, advises Jean-Christophe Rufin
Fast and furious
Robert Colvile’s The Great Acceleration and Charles Duhigg’s Smarter Faster Better offer helpful advice on the pace of modern living
The last word
The bizarre story of the guru Sri Ramakrishna and his feuding entourage is full of sly charm and astonishing vitality
Trivial pursuits
Offset by a blood-spattered backdrop, this is just one of many startling images from Grayson’s colourful sketchbooks, dating from the 1980s
Mouldering hats and wedding veils
In a frank memoir of alcoholism and emotional suppression, Juliet Nicolson finally liberates herself from her formidable forebears
Nine angst-ridden men
In a series of stories that are both dark and hilarious, David Szalay explores the predicaments of nine tormented men
‘Do black movies really not sell?’
The Oscar-nominated actor-director explains how Hollywood really works – and how his latest film broke all the rules
A trip down Mammary Lane
The atmosphere is vague and vapid and feels like an excuse to look at women’s pants while being in denial about why we’re looking at women’s pants
There will be blood
And even if you closed your eyes on Katie Mitchell’s production, you’d still not find it a great evening, with the conductor merely beating time
In defence of conceptual art
Conceptual art can be fanciful rubbish but at its best it’s funny, arresting and, in spite of itself, even beautiful
Fresh and wild
Deborah Ross welcomes this dark remake of the animated classic, especially its lack of icky messages about belonging
An inconvenient truth
Channel 4's What British Muslims Really Think will come as no surprise to the British public, says James Delingpole
High life
But it didn’t elicit any real answers to my questions about such reliable ‘allies’ such as the Saudis and Pakistanis
Low life
Given the prevalence of Desperate Dan lookalikes even the French left wouldn’t champion the idea that gender is a matter of choice
Long life
It’s the centenary of the Anglo-Russian Hospital of St Petersburg, founded by Lady Muriel Paget, my grandmother and a world-class hustler and humanitarian
National review
The winners upset the odds — and while the race was casualty-free for the fourth year running it lost nothing of its spectacle
Bridge
Can there be a game more humiliating than Bridge? Last weekend the boys and I went to Warsaw to play…
666
The year 2016 is the anniversary of a number of significant events in the chess world. In 1946 Alexander Alekhine…
Puzzle no. 404
Black to play. This is a position from Carbone–Slipak, Mar del Plata 2016. How can Black conclude? Answers to me…
Mismatch
In Competition No. 2943 you were invited to submit a review of a well-known work of literature that has been…
2256: 11 x 11
The unclued lights (three of two words), individually or paired, are of a kind, with 1 Down as a plural.…
