Better that the Americans take over the London Stock Exchange
Plus: Central bankers can’t go on like this; and why Barclays should stay in Africa
A conservative case for staying in
The Brexit camp want to risk decades of real peace and prosperity to attain a future full of implausibly rational statesmen
Of geese and men
The history of human-goose relationships shows how confused we are about our fellow animals
Who steals books?
In some places, it’s the Ottolenghis that have to be kept behind the counter. In others, it’s the true crime
Communism kills
We, unlike the Hungarians, are in danger of forgetting this ideology’s extraordinary death toll
Courchevel
The last time I stayed in Courchevel it was in a tatty roadside chalet a long way down the mountain.…
‘Excess is obnoxious’
Aleppo’s magnificent history as an ancient Silk Road metropolis makes Philip Mansel’s final bleak chapter, ‘Death of a City’, especially tragic reading
A disarming heroine
This big, colourful novel, written by a film critic and set in Fifties bohemian London, is as addictive as a TV box set
Putting the sun in the shade
Timothy J. Jorgensen’s Strange Glow contains some really quite interesting facts about this strange transmission of energy that can both kill and cure
Reds against Whites
The decade of internecine carnage that followed the 1917 October revolution was one of the bitterest and — until Jonathan D. Smele’s latest book — most neglected periods of Russian history
Strangers in their native land
The Schlesingers were wealthy, public-spirited and highly cultivated British patriots. But London society still casually snubbed his grandparents, says Ian Buruma
When sharing isn’t fair
Sharing companies may appear to make everyone a winner. But, as Tom Slee argues, they distort the market and disregard dull but important regulations
A host of unquiet spirits
The stricken heroine of The Stopped Heart, numb with grief, retires to a quiet country cottage — only to find it full of menace and unquiet spirits
Mr Spock and I
William Shatner boldly goes into the details of his 50-year friendship with Leonard Nimoy — and his profound sadness over their final estrangement
A good editor and a good man
Was this dynamic and highly principled editor too good to make for an interesting biography? Not on this evidence
What went wrong
The former governor of the Bank of England warns that the present danger is not that the euro might collapse but that it might continue
The rite stuff
Religion is appealing to dramatists: witness Hand to God, a surprise hit on Broadway that has now transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre. But will theatre ever take religion seriously?
Topsy-turvy
None of Botticelli's imitators come close to matching his ease and divine grace. But the Renaissance master is at his best at the Courtauld, illustrating Dante, loosed from loveliness
What’s love got to do with it?
Yet sometimes the singers struggle to be heard over the brazen glow of Puccini's orchestrations
Tragedy trumped by porn
The sets are nice though. Plus: a horrifying but riveting new play about the Yorkshire grooming scandals at the Trafalgar Studios
Purifying the gymnasium
But that's partly because we still don't have good answers to the questions he raised