How cartomania captivated even Queen Victoria
The craze for photographic cartes de visite that swept Victorian Britain was further boosted by the Queen’s own enthusiasm for the format
Notes on the natural world: an exquisite collection from Kathleen Jamie
In short essays and poems, the Scottish makar explores our connections with nature, always mindful of the insignificance of human time compared to the deep time of stones
Could anyone be trusted in Tudor and Stuart England?
An investigation of the codes, disguises and invisible inks used by plotters and spymasters captures the paranoia of an age when secret messages could be hidden anywhere
The downside to being rich: Long Island Compromise, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, reviewed
A rollicking family saga set on Long Island revolves around the kidnapping of a wealthy businessman and the effects of it on his wife and children
At last, a private education that wasn’t unmitigated misery
Robyn Hitchcock describes how his musical tastes were formed listening, aged 14, to Dylan, the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix on the school gramophone at Winchester
A haunting apparition: Bonehead, by Mo Hayder, reviewed
A young policewoman returns to her native Gloucestershire, hoping to solve a mystery connected to a terrible past accident there
Richard Flanagan rails against wrongs ‘too vast to have a name’
‘Why do we do what we do to each other?’ he asks, citing among many atrocities the dropping of the atom bomb and the genocide of aboriginal Tasmanians
The rewards of being the ‘asylum capital of the world’
Matthew Lockwood traces Britain’s long history as a haven for refugees and argues that the nation has benefitted greatly over the centuries as a result
Dedicated to debauchery: the life of Thom Gunn
Even the most liberal-minded reader might be surprised by the amount of crack cocaine, LSD, alcohol and casual sex the poet indulged over the course of 50 years
Labour’s prison plan will fix one problem – but could cause plenty of others
Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has bowed to the inevitable: acknowledging that ‘our prisons are on the point of collapse’, Mahmood…
The trouble with Ed Miliband’s North Sea oil plan
Just Stop Oil continued its campaign by spreading orange paint over road junctions in Westminster this week, but why bother…
Britain is still the world’s most successful multi-faith democracy
The swearing-in ceremonies in parliament this week have been rare in that more of them are filmed, posted on social…
Why state bureaucracy is crucial to our happiness
With politicians increasingly sabotaging the machinery of government worldwide, our only protection lies in the civil service, judiciary, police and security services