On Pilgrimage with the Hasids
'Uman has been called the Hasidic Mecca and the Hasidic Glastonbury. Overwhelmingly, however, the pilgrimage is rejected as “un-Jewish”, even by other ultra-Orthodox Jews'
Teaching China’s Anglophiles
'One student identified himself as working class and a member of the Communist Party. I was, however, surprised to see a copy of Roger
The Cornish Spiderman
The softly spoken Cornishman Michael Adams weaves webs around his opponents and strikes when it is too late for his encircled
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
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