Running wild
Laughably improbable candidates are an essential part of the process — and many of them do pretty well out of it…
Degrees of bureaucracy
As academic staff suffer and ever more power is granted to donors, one slice of university staff seem to be doing very well
When we were very young
The Adventures of Alice Laselles reveals much about the future queen — including her dearest childhood wish to have a room of her own
Lost in the telling
Repetitive and highfalutin, I Saw a Man, involving a distant drone strike and close-ups of a failing marriage, feels rushed and undeveloped
A triumphant failure
With Quicksand, a flaccid carrier bag of a comic romp, I fear that Steve Toltz is trying to find out
Something sensational to read on the train
In Station to Station, former commuter James Attlee finds romance and malarkey along the line to Bristol
Dizzying swirls of impasto
Catherine Lampert’s revelations about Frank Auerbach include the astonishing claim that, as an orphan, he never felt the need of parents
Nasty piece of work
Stephen King’s latest foray into hard-boiled detective fiction has a definite whiff of Elmore Leonard — without the humour
To Hell in a handcart — again
The more we know about environmental damage, according to Michael McCarthy’s The Moth Snowstorm, the more of it we seem to do
The bravest of the brave
Gary Mead highlights the many problems involved with awarding the VC. How can courage be graded? And who should be the judge?
Celebrations of song and humanity
Béla Bartók cannot really be considered Hungary’s ‘national’ composer at a time when borders were constantly being redrawn — but he was an undoubted hero when it came to collecting folk music
Beautiful, bedevilled island
Two new books on Sicily celebrate the island’s rich history, from the ancient Greeks to Cosa Nostra (but both are wrong about Leonardo Sciascia)
Lulzfags v. moralfags
Two new books on internet trolling reveal that the geeks, hackers and misanthropes who are wrecking people’s lives are mainly young, male Americans — but with a fair smattering of Brits and Aussies
There’s no substitute for human intelligence
Stephen Grey’s The New Spymasters traces an astonishing transformation in MI5, MI6 and GCHQ — but at least some of the old rules apply
His dark materials
Will Gore wonders whether the arts should be at liberty to exploit real-life tragedy for entertainment
Evolutionary road
Peter Phillips sees weaknesses in the programming that suggests the pace of evolution is too slow
The long goodbye
Plus: it’s a great, sad mystery that Guillem’s legacy is not visible in the current shambolic Royal Ballet where the best thing in their final 2014-15 programme is the music
The Craig-Martin touch
Michael Craig-Martin has brought some much needed order to the primordial free-for-all that is the Summer Exhibition
Boring Boorman
Deborah Ross thinks director John Boorman should have spoken to her first before embarking on this uninteresting and misguided sequel
Close encounters
Plus: catch one of the funniest stage comedians alive in the Olivier’s new production of The Beaux’ Stratagem
Simply Macnificent
When they spoke, they made little to no sense, but when they sang and played they came close to perfection, says Melissa Kite
