Books of the Year
Plus choices from Jane Ridley, Marcus Berkmann, Sam Leith, Molly Guinness, Melanie McDonagh, Christopher Howse, Charlotte Moore, Philip Hensher, Lewis Jones, John Preston, Martin Gayford, Susie Dent, Ian Thomson, Piers Paul Read, Mark Mason, Bevis Hillier, Allan Mallinson, Peter Parker, James Walton, James McConnachie, William Leith, Philip Ziegler and Cressida Connolly
The wandering Jew
A review of The Impossible Exile by George Prochnik. Contemporaries sniped at his success, but for a Jewish novelist in Austria in the 1930s, the possibilities of remaining a comic figure were few
Scotland the brave
A review of Michael Fry’s A Higher World examines the long 18th century, in which the Union of England and Scotland was consolidated
Gloriana waits and sees
A review of Elizabeth: Renaissance Prince by Lisa Hilton argues that the queen’s true greatness lay in her inactivity and stalling tactics
A choice of humorous books
Marcus Berkmann’s round-up of the year’s best humorous books includes gems from Michael Frayn, Nora Ephron, QI, Peter Jones, John D. Barrow, Stephen Collins and Peanuts
The driving force of an ageing rocker
In a review of Special Deluxe, not much is given away about Neil Young — except that he toured with his band in a souped-up hearse named ‘Mort’
Forlorn Hope
A review of Hope by Richard Zoglin suggests that the ‘entertainer’, who lived to be 100, was a mean womaniser and neglectful father, who was never even very funny
We don’t have words for this
A review of Hacker, Hoaxer Whistleblower, Spy by Gabriella Coleman penetrates the chaotic world of the mysterious non- collective that hacked the Pentagon and the government of Tunisia for starters
Title Stories: The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
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Portrait of a romantic psychopath
In a review of Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère, a one-time poet, now full-blown psychopath, emerges as one of the most controversial characters of contemporary Russia
Yearning for Knole
A review of Behind the Mask by Matthew Dennison reveals that in Vita Sackville-West’s copious writings, she generally cast herself as a man
A choice of gardening books
A round up of the year’s best gardening books takes in Madison Cox’s The Gardener’s Garden, George Plumptre’s The English Country-House Garden, Roy Strong’s The Laskett, Sarah Raven’s Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst, Ursula Buchan’s The Garden Anthology, Charles Dowding’s Gardening Myths and Misconceptions, Thomas J. Mickey’s America’s Romance with the English Garden and Caroline Foley’s Of Cabbages and Kings
Everything is merde
The bestseller Le Suicide français reveals a political thinker in the Jeremy Clarkson league, says Graham Robb
Christmas art books
Apart from Charles Wellesley’s study of the Iron Duke’s victorious portraits, a round-up of the year’s art books inlcudes Judith Zilczer’s A Way of Living, Nicola del Roscio’s The Essential Cy Twombly, David Dawson’s A Painter’s Progress, Jan Verwoert’s Wolfgang Tillmans, Joanna Cannon’s Religious Poverty, Visual Riches, Judith Collins’s Sculpture Today, Michael W. Cole’s Donatello, Michelangelo, Cellini, Emily Braun’s Cubism, Sheila R. Canby’s The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp and The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Toronto
The man who fell from Earth
In a review of Michel Faber’s The Book of Strange Things the inhabitants of the planet Oasis embrace the King James Bible and begin numbering themselves Jesus Lover One, Two and Three ...
A Latin American shaggy-dog story
In a review of The Neruda Case by Roberto Ampuero, Cayetano Brulé takes his time digging deep into his client’s past
The art of design
As well as nose-diving into the tasselled damask of Nicky Haslam’s A Designer’s Life, a round-up of the year’s design books delves into Room by Nach Alegre, Rock Covers by Julius Weidemann, Studio, by Tom kelley, and 100 Buildings - 100 Years by Gavin Stamp
Bradford bohemian
A new film on Hockney opens next week. At Pace Gallery New York his latest paintings are on show. Martin Gayford talks to the celebrated Yorkshire artist about 60 years of ignoring art fashion
In the shadow of Guernica
Possibly. That said, the best of the Pallant House Gallery's Spanish civil war show, Conscience and Conflict, are a revelation
Starry cast
These newly refurbished rooms pose several questions about the nature of great art and what the difference is between a copy, reproduction, fake and facsimile
Curatorial wrongs
Mark Irving laments how students of curation start off as lively citizens of the world and end up as dulled parrots of ideological cant
Sale of the century
Richard Cork relives the extraordinary moment in 1970 when a Velazquez’s portrait smashed the world auction record at Christie’s
There’s something about Mary
A bogus history book and a new John Adams oratorio turn Mary of Magdala into the wife of Jesus and a human rights activist. Damian Thompson feels sorry for the poor woman
Tales from a strip joint
Solomon and Marion, a new play at the Print Room set in South Africa, whose emotional impact is potent and long-lasting
