book reviews and features

Julian Baggini: How the World Thinks review - a whirlwind tour of ideas

marina Vaizey Sunday, 21 October 2018

The intrepid philosopher Julian Baggini has travelled the world, going to academic conferences, interviewing scores of practicing philosophers from academics to gurus, trying to figure out and pin...

Barbara Kingsolver: Unsheltered review - too many issues

Markie Robson-Scott Sunday, 14 October 2018

“When men fear the loss of what they know, they will follow any tyrant who promises to restore the old order.” Mary Treat, the real-life 19th-century botanist who is one of the characters in...

Simon Sebag Montefiore: Written in History review - epistolary high points

marina Vaizey Sunday, 07 October 2018

Humdinger! This is a totally brilliant idea for an amazing anthology, although the subtitle “Letters that Changed...

Neil MacGregor: Living with the Gods review - focuses of belief

marina Vaizey Sunday, 23 September 2018

Dip in, dip out, argue, agree and disagree: Living with the Gods is the newest manifestation of a rich multimedia format that keeps on giving, devised by that superb writer and lecturer,...

Lavinia Greenlaw: In the City of Love’s Sleep review - curated lives

Katherine Waters Sunday, 23 September 2018

Iris is a museum conservator with a pair of pre-adolescent daughters and a failing marriage. Raif...

Olga Tokarczuk: Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead review - on vengeful nature

Katherine Waters Sunday, 09 September 2018

In a small town on the Polish-Czech border where the mobile signal wanders between countries’ operators and only three inhabitants stick it out through the winter, animals are wreaking a terrible...

Michael Hughes: Country review - epic troubles

Matthew Wright Sunday, 02 September 2018

Michael Hughes’ second novel, superimposing the post-96 Troubles on the story of The Iliad, rides a wave of Homeric re-tellings, with Pat Barker and Colm Tóibín having recently...

Yuval Noah Harari: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century review - a sceptic's optimism?

marina Vaizey Sunday, 26 August 2018

The bestseller Sapiens (2011, first published in English in 2014) by the hitherto little-known Israeli academic Yuval Noah Harari has sold enormously well, and justly so: recommended by...

P.E.Caquet: The Bell of Treason review - the sacrifice of Czechoslovakia

Jasper Rees Sunday, 26 August 2018

It was 80 years ago next month that Neville Chamberlain returned with the good news of peace in our time...

h 100 Awards: Publishing and Writing - other stories, other voices

Boyd Tonkin Monday, 20 August 2018

If history repeats itself, better hope that it corrects its mistakes as well. This year’s nominations for the...

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