Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley
Like, I suspect, most people, my knowledge of Agatha Christie has been limited to having…
Author Philip Cottam
Shanghai by Joseph Kanon
In his latest foray into the pre-Second World War world of spies and emigrés living…
A Miscellany of Summer Reading
Can it be? Summer’s here? Perhaps it once was, and may yet show its face…
Insurrection
The American Presidential election campaign of 2024 is well underway. The primary election phase of…
A Ski Season Finale at Gastein
You can get lucky if you try to catch the last of the ski season.…
Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne
Super-Infinite is a startlingly wonderful and quite unputdownable biography of John Donne. Katherine Rundell has…
Hitler, Stalin Mum and Dad – A Memoir of Survival
Daniel Finkelstein, probably best known for his political and football journalism in The Times, has…
Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination
Since the publication of his first book Mountains of the Mind in 2003, Robert Macfarlane…
Colditz, Prisoners of the Castle
As I started writing this review there was a minor storm in a teacup over…
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
David Grann’s latest book The Wager, A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder tells the…
The Fraud, by Zadie Smith
Ever since Zadie Smith burst on to the literary scene with her deservedly award winning…