Egypt
In the Valley of the Kings, pharaohs’ tombs that before 2011 required lengthy queuing are now easily accessible
Evil under the sun
Reviews of Gallipoli by Richard van Emden and Stephen Chambers, and a new edition of Alan Moorehead’s landmark work of the same name
The gypsy and the swan
Anna Thomasson’s A Curious Friendship details the artist Rex Whistler’s shared fantasy land with the much older novelist Edith Olivier
The unstable element
It turns out that mental illness isn’t a new invention. Andrew Scull’s Madness in Civilization reviewed
The decisive moment
They’re modest in scale, but can conceal a tendency to megalomania. Reviews of D.J. Taylor’s Wrote For Luck and The Boy Who Could See Death by Salley Vickers
For the sake of argument
Emily Rhodes reviews The Girl Who Couldn’t Stop Arguing, which our columnist assures us is not an autobiographical work
The lonely sea and the sky
Honor Clerk reviews Julia Blackburn’s delightful Threads: The Delicate Life of John Craske
Villains of the gospels
Reviews of Judas by Peter Stanford and The True Herod by Geza Vermes, which turn an unflinching light on the villains of the Bible
The ass saw the angel
Ysenda Maxtone Graham reviews The White Umbrella, a charming tale of a man who adopts a mistreated donkey
His remastered voice
Pristine Classical's interventionist boldness may upset audiophiles, but their restorations are miraculous, says Damian Thompson
Blunt and bloody
The casting is exemplary but the drama could do with fewer Grand Guignol gestures and more subtlety and darkness
Lime light
Martin Gayford urges you to make a pilgrimage to Rothenburg ob der Tauber to see Tilman Riemenschneider’s limewood masterpiece
Twenty/forty vision
Plus: a new documentary about Robert Altman that’s disappointingly unAltmanesque
Monky business
Plus: Hofesh Shechter offers a more politely apocalyptic vision than usual in his Royal Ballet debut
A family at war
Plus: a static new play, Breakfast of Eels at the Print Room, by a playwright that many are hailing as theatre’s brightest hope - even though he’s 62 and not very good
Recorded delivery
Plus: a Radio 4 drama tackles the Trojan Horse scandal and the World Service talks to homeless asylum seekers
The actor-commentariat
Why do actors now take centre-stage in all the serious debates of the day? And more importantly, why do we listen to them?
High life
The most divine music ever accompanied by two bottles of Haut-Brion reduced me to an enchanted wreck
Low life
But for now, my first small step to an indigenous mindset was to piss in the nearest ornamental tub
Real life
Dorking is the real deal, sans dogging, sans new town, but you must be prepared to climb a hill or 17
The price of success
If no one will step forward then the BHA and Great British Racing must fund it themselves
Bridge
Wednesday night is league night. Sacrosanct. I’ve missed only one in seven years and that was when my daughter was…
Yawn
In Competition No. 2891 you were invited to think of the most boring lecture topic possible and submit an extract…
2205: In shape
The unclued lights (including one of three words, one of two words, and one hyphened) form two thematic groups in…
