Gift for Greece
Spirit of London 2012? The best thing that could happen to the Olympic Games would be to send them home
Fussball über alles
The German film Der Ganz Grosse Traum shows the delightful story of the first Anglo-German conflict (football match, that is)
Law Lore
Americanisms sullying the English language are rarely harmful — apart from when they insinuate that our politicians are all-powerful
Fischer’s Cuban Crisis
A lesser-known Cold War chess clash which left Bobby Fischer the worse for wear
Snooker Without Balls
Affinity between aficionadoes of baize and board
The Killer Instinct
The chess player's mind is not necessarily a criminal one - but two consummate players did turn out to be murderers
Getting Away With Murder
A new thriller set in late-Stalinist Soviet Union has alarmed Russian authorities
New York Survival Story
How the New York Public Library weathered a near-death experience
Prizeman Who Still Glitters
At 84, Frederic Raphael writes with the freshness and vigour of a young man starting out
Caught In The Web
Why is security online so hard to achieve? Edward Lucas's Cyberphobia argues that we are more at risk online than we realise
Israel’s Impish Ice-Breaker
Etgar Keret's memoir The Seven Good Years is mellow but full of deadpan humour about life's absurdities
From Octavian To Augustus
Jochen Bleichen's biography of the Emperor is monumental but highly readable