Don’t blame the blob
As chairman of the National Trust, I’m part of the collection of green groups the former Environment Secretary blames for his sacking. He’s wrong
Disciplined exoticism
A review of Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born, by Matthew Parker. This biography of Bond's creator reveals an Ian Fleming who was cruel, vain and racist
What the eye don’t see
A review of Invisible: The Dangerous Lure of the Unseen, by Philip Ball. Scientists and occultists held hands in their quest for the invisible
Soothing the savage breast
A review of H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald. It’s when describing the murderous, sulky, fractious birds themselves that this story comes alive
The Jane Austen of Brazil
A review of The Diary of ‘Helena Morley’, translated from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Bishop. A delightful, funny and revealing memoir of Brazilian teenage life in a 19th century mining town
Two Roads
There are the fast people who check their emails hourly, engage with Twitter and multi- task their way through the…
Through the looking-glass
A review of Reynolds: Portraiture in Action, by Mark Hallett, an investigation of the strategies by which the painter achieved unprecedented fame
A ladies’ man in Moscow
A review of Twilight of the Eastern Gods, by Ismail Kadare. Women rescue this Virgilian tour through Khruschev’s Russia
Confessional box
A review of In Confidence: Talking Frankly About Fame, by Laurie Taylor. An artful distillation of over 60 long-form TV interviews, featuring everyone from Michael Frayn to Uri Geller
Title Stories: A Clockwork Orange By Anthony Burgess
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Relative values
Brothers in Art is a welcome initiative, but it could have done with quite a few more careful loans
Monster in our midst
It's not a sunny film for a sunny day, but amid the cinematic desert of August it is at least masterfully told
Simple pleasures
The Soviet dance aesthetic now looks dated – unless you can pull it off as well as this
In a spin
The acting is as good as the casting will allow, but this Young Vic production feels like a stammering lawyer interrogating a corpse
Bleak and brutal
If you were a mobster with a reputation to uphold, you'd go after Roberto Saviano too
Hearing aids
Radio 4 offers a course in developing the senses – if only the stars of Today in Parliament tuned in
Edinburgh rocks
Some performers think they're here for their big chance. Really, they're here to suffer
High life
The beaches of my childhood have a fresh attraction, for all the lousy politics that comes with them
