identity
The perils of baby names
As a Warwickshire girl, born and bred, I am rarely one to take issue with Shakespeare. However, when the intensely…
England, whose England?
For a long time, the mainstream political parties have adhered to an omertà – a ‘never complain, never explain’ –…
A succession of selves: How Do People Stay the Same by Mark Bowles reviewed
A sad novel with funny moments that tells its story via a series of reverse-ordered journal entries. First, the happy ending, then a progression backwards through more troubling times, getting remarkably close to the messy truth of life along the way
A question of identity: Passage, by Colin Thubron, reviewed
A subtle novella involving a desperate act of betrayal in the Valley of the Kings is also an investigation of who we really are and what will remain of us after death
Double trouble: As If, by Isabel Waidner, reviewed
Two near-identical middle-aged men, adrift and purposeless, are revitalised when they spontaneously decide to swap lives
Tim Franks goes in search of what it means to be Jewish
In a thought-provoking family history, the BBC journalist addresses questions of identity – and to what extent we are products of our forebears
Should family history, however painful, be memorialised forever?
What to hold on to and what to let go of is Samantha Ellis’s dilemma when trying to explain the complexities of their Judeo-Iraqi heritage to her young son
The past is another country: Ripeness, by Sarah Moss, reviewed
The voice of teenage Edith caring for her pregnant sister in Italy alternates with that of her elderly self in contemporary Ireland in a story of identity, belonging and consent
The right way
We need conservatism now more than ever
