Gently does it
A review of The Ten Thousand Things, by John Spurling. This intricately wrought study of medieval Chinese scholar-artists is wonderfully well imagined
Botched Italian job
A review of Target: Italy, by Roderick Bailey. Whatever their deficiencies on the battlefield the Italian secret service outwitted British Intelligence during the second world war
Led a merry dance
A review of The Disinherited: A Story of Love, Family and Betrayal, by Robert Sackville-West. This biography of the famous family does not end well
Not for the squeamish
A review of A Curious Career, by Lynn Barber, and An Encyclopaedia of Myself, by Jonathan Meades. Two biographies to delight a dandy
Portrait of the artist
An extract from Three Lives of Dylan Thomas by Hilly Janes, which recalls her father’s friendship with the poet
Spring round-up
The loopy line of Jankel Adler, the prints of Norman Stevens, the lucid dreams of Mick Rooney and the paintings of Alan Davie and Brian Horton
Master of melancholy
A Pas de Calais honours artist who refused to be labeled - and suffered the consequences
Tangled up in blue
Plus: Debris at the Southwark Playhouse attempts to produce heightened drama from murderous squalor – and fails
Not guilty
Where Marcus Berkmann commits professional suicide and admits he likes Abba – and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Oedipus wrecks
Thebans, a new ENO opera by Frank McGuinness and Julian Anderson, is short on conviction – and interest
Out of the ordinary
Though his head is encased in papier mache, Michael Fassbender is wondrously expressive in this biopic of Frank Sidebottom
Watching the clock
Don’t let London suburbia throw you. This new series of the hyperactive American cop drama, 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland, is as thrilling as ever
Bedtime stories
When Radio 4 gets it right, the consolation of a great story, beautifully told, lulling the mind into sleep cannot be bettered
Domestic harmony
You’ll see nothing ‘cream and green and cosy’ in this spiky, gutsy and playful recreation of postwar interiors from Pangolin London
Low life
And then I returned my attention reluctantly to this unhappy, tattooed, self-absorbed, orange-fingered, sexually incontinent, bottle-blonde English woman to whom I was horribly enslaved...
Bridge
The more I watch top-class players bid their hands, the more I abide by the philosophy: points, schmoints! Obviously, we…
Pantheon
From 1950 to 1962, the challenger for the world title was determined by a Candidates tournament of the world’s leading…
No. 313
White to play. This position is from Tal-Smyslov, Candidates Tournament 1959. White’s next move was a bombshell which led to…
The write stuff
In Competition No. 2846 you were invited to invent the six rules for writing of a well-known author of your…
2161: Appellation contrôlée
The unclued lights (one doubly hyphened) share a medical similarity. (Despite appearances there are no rude words in the puzzle!)…
to 2158: Late bloomers
The unclued lights are the surnames of people (nine of whom were botanists) who gave their names to flowers. …
