Homosexuality
The dog it was that died
Appropriately for the dog days of British politics, there’s plenty of canine activity in this neatly groomed account of the…
Thetans under threat
At last! It has taken over two years, but a British publisher has summoned up the nerve to bring out…
The tragedy of Arabia
T.E. Lawrence is seen as a ‘metaphor for imperialism, violence and betrayal’ in the Middle East. But woeful Arab leadership has also been to blame for the region’s problems, says Justin Marozzi
Obscure object of desire
Garth Greenwell’s debut novel is as dreary and oppressive as the Soviet-era apartment buildings among which it takes place. But…
Gay tittle-tattle
The Comintern was the name given to the international communist network in the Soviet era, advancing the cause wherever it…
‘A good boy trying to be bad’
Robert Mapplethorpe made his reputation as a photographer in the period between the 1969 gay-bashing raid at the Stonewall Inn…
A sex vampire on wheels
The title of this book tells you a lot. Jack Sutherland, who grew up in London and Los Angeles, worked…
The Mann who knew everyone
Thomas Mann, despite strong homosexual emotions, had six children. The two eldest, Erika and Klaus, born in 1905 and 1906…
Diary
Quarrelling about the date of Easter has been a Christian pastime for centuries. The chief bone of contention is whether…
Faith is left, right. . . and central
An interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby
Lover and fighter
I don’t like boxing. If I ever get into a boxing ring, I’ll be in the corner with the governor…
Life with old father William
This intensely written memoir by Adam Mars-Jones about his Welsh father, Sir William, opens with the death of Sheila, Adam’s…
The lonely struggle of Jude the obscure
Just over a century after Virginia Woolf declared that ‘on or about December 1910 human character changed’, the American novelist…
The Spectator’s Notes
As someone who has rarely written a sentence in praise of the late Sir Edward Heath, I hope I can…
Who’d have thought that about Ted? Well…
In another blow for freedom and the protection of the vulnerable, Conservative MP Mark Spencer has suggested that anti-terror legislation…
Putin and the polygamists
The Kremlin is tying itself in ideological knots as it tries to make new friends in the Muslim world
The left pillories Tim Farron for his popular view
I wonder who will win the battle for Tim Farron’s soul — the Guardianistas or God? This is assuming that…
Barometer
Plagued by stigma The World Health Organisation told doctors to stop naming diseases after people, places and animals so as…
Cold comfort farm in Canada
Patrick Gale’s first historical novel is inspired by a non-story, a gap in his own family record. His great-grandfather Harry…
Good old bad old days
Anthony Quinn’s fourth novel, set in London’s artistic and theatrical circles in 1936, is not the kind in which an…
High life
I had a short chat with BBC radio concerning the actor Jack Nicholson, whom I knew slightly during the Seventies…
Autism and the Turing Fallacy
When I first heard the story of Alan Turing in my late teens I made what must be quite a…
Everything is merde
Graham Robb on the book currently taking France by storm
The Catholic civil war
Uncertainty over how much reform Pope Francis wants is splitting his church into factions
Three was a crowd
Mirabel Cecil on Lord Berners’s volatile ménage — as surprising and colourful as his famous dyed doves
