Is addiction a disease?
When he threatened to kill opium smokers, they gave up. What does that tell you?
Save our Van Dyck
Sir Anthony Van Dyck's final self-portrait is a vital part of Britain's artistic heritage
Notes on … Museum shops
There's no better place for last-minute gifts than gallery and museum shops. They even look thoughtful!
In the steppes of a warlord
Tim Cope's moving account of his 6,000-mile ride across the lands of the nomads, On the Trail of Genghis Khan, is vast, repetitive and meandering — just like his journey
Unconditional love
Can you write fiction in a non-fiction way? In Pure Gold Baby, the author tries to avoid a beginning, a middle and an end, keeping us always in the midst of the moment
The monster in our midst
Brad Stone's The Everything Store is an unflattering portrait of the giant online shop and its driven CEO Jeff Bezos, a man who'd be 'uncool' by his own exacting standards
Boundless blessings
Too much kindly advice can be grating, as the author unintentionally demonstrates in This is the Story of a Happy Marriage — yet her collection of essays is also a charmer
A choice of children’s books
Melanie McDonagh picks The River Singers, The Demon Dentist, Rooftoppers, The Fault in Our Stars, Knight Crusader — and several beautiful Folio editions
A certain way with words
You'll learn about litotes, synecdoches, zeugmas, isocolons and the right way to order your adjectives in Mark Forsyth's The Elements of Eloquence
Homage to Elizabeth the first
It's time to celebrate this elegant writer of a dozen novels, among them Angel, in which she fictionalised her own fears about being a young female author
Cubism domesticated
Get flying buttresses for your coffee table — Norbert Wolf's Art Deco is a massive and beautiful tome, despite a few strange omissions
Gossip, gossip from all the nations
In Letters of Note, Shaun Usher has compiled a stupendous collection of memorable missives, often by famous people — and with facsimiles, each page is a marvel
Images that glow in the mind
Andrew Lambirth's handsome volume on Davison's work deals only with the foothills of his oeuvre. The artist remains a genius to be discovered
A choice of crime fiction
Andrew Taylor picks the best detective thrillers of the season — The Late Scholar, Then We Take Berlin, The Double, The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon
Fun and games at Glin
I have to declare an interest: for many years the Knight and I were the closest of friends until a…
A shaggy dog story
Hot Dogs and Cocktails was written after Peter Conradi watched Hyde Park on Hudson — you should catch both the book and the film
Circus of blood
He's not a substantial character, he's the spirit of justice. Just what the play needs!
Miller’s tale
Miller on starring in The Duck House, a farce about MPs' expenses, and sketch partnership with Alexander Armstrong
Great Britten
With luck, the highlight of the Britten centenary will allow more people to recognise his operatic masterpiece
Cranko’s legacy
Forty years after his death, the choreographer's brilliance lives on in his old company's eclectic style
