Banalities From Behind Bars
Bland, self-serving and naive, Vicky Price’s 'prison memoir' contains not a jot of insight or introspection
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
The Bibliophile and the Bore
Two new books about reading are polar opposites. Alexander McCall Smith's musings are platitudinous while Nick Hornby reads like someone you’d love to chat with until the sun came up
Musical Maestro of the Palette
Paul Klee’s compositions were lyrical masterpieces whose rhythms and colours inspire awe
Sarah Raphael and a Father’s Pride and Grief
As a major retrospective of his daughter’s work opens in London, Frederic Raphael talks about her artistic life and untimely death
Damian McBride: A Cautionary Tale
Did Gordon Brown’s aide receive moral formation at Peterhouse, Cambridge? If not, why not?
Off-Limits: Subjects Artists Won’t Tackle
Far from being cutting-edge, the British cultural establishment ignores the biggest threat to artistic freedom: radical Islam
A Personal Story of Memory and Survival
Simon Schama's Story of the Jews may contain some serious omissions, but this haunting history is both captivating and enchanting.
What Makes Her Tick?
Will the real Angela Merkel please stand up? After reading Stefan Kornelius’s official biography the German Chancellor remains a mystery
Beware the Sanguine Banker
Iain Martin’s message in his excellent Making it Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the Men Who Blew Up the British Economy is that a proper sense of fear is good for bankers.
McBrideshead Revisited
In the spin doctor’s memoirs the similarities between Evelyn Waugh’s protagonist Charles Ryder and Gordon Brown’s antagonist Damian McBride are several and eerie
Anarchic Interregnum
Ian Buruma's Year Zero deftly tells the story of 1945: the year the modern world began
Saintly Networkers
Kate Cooper’s pacy tale of heroines, virgins and martyrs recounts the largely unknown role of women in shaping the early Church