The kindness of strangers
A review of Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France, by Caroline Moorehead. Parallel to the squalid map of Vichy was a map of decency
Recent crime novels
Plus: The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair? It's not a Great American Novel. But it is a decent thriller
Seeing Dante anew
A review of Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity, by Prue Shaw. This companion to the life and work of the Italian genius will make you blink in wonder
More ugly truths
A review of Think Like a Freak: How to Think Smarter About Almost Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The authors of Freakonomics want to teach you to think less like the kind of people who read books
Spoken For
What I want to tell you is I can dream with my eyes wide open, like riding a bicycle without…
Gossip with a kind heart
As a result, Robert Galbraith's The Silkworm is a toothless and inept novel
Tears of a clown
On the eve of his UK tour, the stand-up comedian tells Matthew Stadlen how depression triggered his career – and rescued his marriage
Black comedy
British comic strips were nothing if not subversive, as this new British Library exhibition shows
Sleazy does it
Plus: a post-apocalyptic take on Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Linbury Studio Theatre
Hit and miss
It’s as if the director and screenwriter looked at Mamma Mia! and thought: ‘Let’s do that again, but make it horrible and bad and ill-considered’
Out of this world
Plus: a diary of 1914 – as Richard Strauss and the Ballets Russes hit London, Archduke Ferdinand prepares to visit Sarajevo
Modern manners
Hogarth’s famous ne’er-do-well is given a modern twist by David Hockney, Grayson Perry and Yinka Shonibare at the Foundling Museum
Low life
If you didn't notice the iPad lying around in Charlie's house, you might assume poaching was still a capital offence
Real life
When an equine vet gets his equipment out, he likes to run it over everything like an out-of-control hose
Bridge
I’m not trying to pretend it will make up for the drubbing England took in the World Cup, but if…
Blitzkrieg
Chess, unlike football, appears to confer little or no home advantage. In a recent article for Kensington & Chelsea Today,…
