The Cornish Spiderman
The softly spoken Cornishman Michael Adams weaves webs around his opponents and strikes when it is too late for his encircled
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Sir Hugh Casson
Sir Hugh Casson (1910-99) was the John Betjeman of postwar British architecture: the unthreatening, homely face of a sometimes difficult art form. Casson came to notice when, at the age of only
Uncritical Theorists Who Misread the Nazis
A new volume of reports by the Frankfurt School shows their number to be at best naive and at worst dangerously misinformed
Reason, Religion and the Terror
Anthony Pagden's celebration of the Enlightenment swiftly turns into a sustained, and unwarranted, diatribe against religion
Ten Billion Loose Ends
Two new books come to different conclusions about the geo-political impact of the coming population boom
Comfort For Sad Souls
George Herbert is the poet's poet. John Drury's biography is at times infuriatingly simplistic, but succeeds in its scholarship
A Voice For the Oppressed
The Dark Road is a novel that transmits the reality of human suffering at the hands of the Chinese government
Just Don’t Call it Science Fiction
MaddAddam occasionaly misses the mark, but at its best is an existential voyage and an exploration of storytelling itself
Tintin and the Cold War
Jonathan Coe's new novel is set at the World Fair in 1958 and he's captured the idealistic atmosphere where my father displayed an exhibit for the UK
Oz the Great and Powerful
The little-known Australian landscape tradition depicts a vast, brutal yet magical country