Damascus Notebook
Plus: The memory of Jeffrey Bernard, and the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide
Up close and personal
A review of Updike, by Adam Begley. John Updike was very happy to recycle his own experiences in his fiction
The poor man in his castle
A review of Requisitioned: The British Country House in the Second World War by John Martin Robinson
Recent crime fiction
From dystopian thrillers to childhood horrors and archaeological discoveries; some of the latest crime fiction releases
X marks the stop
A review of Tiny Stations, by Dixe Wills – a travelogue that takes in the 38 remaining request stops on the British railways
Prisoners of conscience
Shame and the Captives, by Thomas Keneally, is not a perfect novel, but this fictional account of escapee Japanese POWs is gripping nonetheless
The gambler’s daily grind
A review of The Ballad of a Small Player, by Lawrence Osborne. An insight into a gambler’s life of soulless grind
Beauty in beastly surroundings
In The Gardens of the British Working Class, Margaret Willes follows the determined struggle of the poor to grow flowers
