ONLINE ONLY: Shelf Life
The Pleasure of Thinking is a window on the eclectic library and well-oiled mind of Theodore Dalrymple
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
England’s Forgotten Symphonist
A long time blacklisted by the snobbish BBC, George Lloyd is the greatest English symphonist you've never heard of
A Vintage Year for Acting
A glut of superb performances in 2012 reflects a rising general standard in the actor’s craft
A pithy retelling of Europe’s darkest days
Norman Stone's new history of World War Two Manages to cover the conflict comprehensively in fewer than 200 pages
Master and Commander
Churchill and Sea Power by Christopher M Bell exonerates the wartime Prime Minister of his alleged military mistakes
1878 And All That
George Weigel's attempt to codify a new Evangelical Catholicism is controversial and idiosyncratic, but has plenty to commend it
Poet, Politician and Schemer
Too often Thomas Wyatt's poetry is ignored in favour of biography, but not in Susan Brigden's fantastic new study
Posthumous Wisdom
A prodigious command of English, ingenious playfulness, an obsessive eye for detail: David Foster Wallace's essays trump his novels
A Tragic Loss of Artistic Talent
Mirabel and Hugh Cecil's In Search of Rex Whistler is a fine tribute to a major artist cut down in his prime
The Artistic Legacy of the Great War
The global impact of World War I changed the arts forever. Its effects are still felt a century later
ONLINE ONLY: Radical Chic and the Corruption of Art
Critics may be heralding the end of contemporary art as we know it, but nothing will change as long as artists worry about how fashionable, rather than how good, their work is
The Old Men Who Made Paint Itself Expressive
It is rare for great artists to keep producing well into old age. Two biographies of Titian and Cézanne reveal masters who saved their best until last