Silent knight
A review of Thomas Asbridge’s The Greatest Knight suggests that the man considered the ‘power behind five English thrones’ remains a decidedly grey eminence
‘J’adore Michel’
David Sexton delights in Soumission, the latest electrifying offering from France’s bad-boy novelist, but warns that an English translation will not be available until the autumn
Title Stories: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
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Finding the key to life
A review of The Door that Led to Where promises adventures and a clever juxtaposition of 19th- and 21st-century worlds
A master of plein-airism
Andrew Lambirth finds a stringent radicalism at the heart of one of our most unassuming and decorative artists
Great Brittain
On the eve of the release of Testament of Youth, a film adaptation of a celebrated memoir of the Great War by Williams’s mother, Vera Brittain, Jasper Rees talks to the Lib Dem peer about Hollywood, pacifism and the Gestapo
Back to the future
Whitechapel Gallery celebrates 100 years of geometrical utopianism, while at the Gagosian Richard Serra offers something more colossally industrial and bleak
To hell and back
The space is underused, the dancing is distracting, the chorus underpowered, leaving Gyula Orendt’s Orfeo to carry much of the emotional core
Beckett plus Seinfeld — plus swearing
Plus: Trafalgar Studios’s Donkey Heart is warm and rich but also contrived
Low life
And here, a mile from the hotel, was my 'everyone gone out, have a soak in the bath first, put some music on' wank of the decade
Real life
Then I opened the door and realised the mop was still there, and no binman was ever going to touch it
Wild life
We’re going to make your Red Cross suppers so appetising you will never want to leave that refugee camp
Bridge
This may sound odd, given its male-only membership, but the Portland is one of my favourite bridge clubs. I’m one…
London Rapid
The exciting American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura compensated for his somewhat lacklustre performance in the London Classic section, held at Olympia…
No: 345
White to play. This position is a variation from Williams-van Wely, London Rapidplay 2014. How can White bring his kingside…
Hard sell
In Competition No. 2880 you were invited to provide a publicity blurb for the Bible to sell it to a…
2194: Joe Green
The unclued lights (one of three words and two of two words), individually or as a pair, are of a…
Christmas crossword: the solution
First prize Roly Harris, London N1 Runners-up Michael Collins, Petts Wood, Kent; Clare Reynolds, London SE24; Tony Mouzer, Shard End,…
