Scotland’s unwon cause
This new newspaper, whatever its quality, is a reminder that the thirst for change in Scotland remains unquenched
President or prisoner?
Just when it seemed that French politics couldn’t get any worse, the former president has put himself back in the game
The trouble with Bristol
A culture that sees itself as one continuous collective protest eventually suffocates itself
Blackberry fool
To survive as a technophobe in the 21st century, you must depend on the kindness of strangers
A liberal education?
Sometimes they arrive with firmly held ‘traditional’ views which clash with the values of such establishments
Bitter, dark and beautiful
Before he was 35, Eugene O’Neill had emerged as a titan on the American stage, and arguably America’s greatest playwright
Clubs, but no heart
In a review of David Goldblatt’s The Game of Our Lives, television sponsorship, pampered star players and the vanity of oligarchs are blamed for the current sad state of English football
The ‘Killer’ at large
A review of Rick Bragg’s Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story reveals the bad boy of rock’n’roll feared he was destined for hell
Children’s books for Christmas
In a round-up review of children’s books, Melanie McDonagh launches a campaign for bigger, better illustrations — and many more of them
A multi-talented musician
A review of Allen Shawn’s life of this maverick reveals him as an object of both admiration and suspicion in the music world
A choice of cookery books
Rose Prince gives us a feast for the eye and the palate in her round-up of the year’s cookery books
Struggling to keep up
A review of Dear Reader explains how its author, Paul Fournel, has tried to future-proof his creation against the ravages of readers
No call a man dead til you bury him
Ian Thomson applauds the grand rituals of West Indian funerals in his review of Charlie Phillips’s How Great Thou Art
All money is in cyberspace anyway
In his review of Dominic Frisby’s Bitcoin: The Future of Money? Michael Bywater points the way to the possible future of economic history
Language
And when I landed in America, aged ten, I knew the language was the same. And yet At once the…
Algerian dystopia
Present-day Algeria, as revealed in a review of Boualem Sansal’s Harraga, lies somewhere between nightmare and soap opera
From patient to doctor
A review of John Launer’s Sex Versus Survival tells the impressive story of a young patient of Jung who became a leading child psychologist in her own right
The daily grind of the hunter-gather
There is plenty of interesting material in Iain Gately’s Rush Hour, but not much of it is about commuting
First Day of Spring in Bath
Quick-flowing creamy light and all cohering: Faux fanes in gardens, Nash and Wesley’s shades, Gold, gaily weighty houses, rocketing sky,…
