Emulation and evisceration
Noel Malcolm tells the story of western intellectual fascination with the Ottoman empire from the fall of Constantinople in 1453
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Charisma and catastrophe
"How could one of the most civilised societies on earth become the instrument of a mind of such malice? I confess that my heart sank at the thought of spending any more
Comics plight no laughing matter
An iconic American art form is in crisis thanks to new writers pushing politically-correct storylines
Agencies of disruption
"Heidi Tworek’s shrewd, erudite and timely News from Germany is a work of historical analysis that can also be read as a corrective to the dangerous hysteria over the information games—fake news
Distinguished only by his errors
"Many, perhaps most, books about Israel are full of tendentious delusions. This is one of the worst examples"
Clubland battle of the bookmen
When a gossip columnist criticised Thackeray, Dickens weighed in to savage his rival
Design for living and loving
The three lives of Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus
Belly of the beast
The Booker-winning Marlon James takes on the fantasy genre with a novel sent in a phantasmagorical version of Africa
A question of attribution
The forthcoming sale of a purported Caravaggio is set to exceed £100m, but its provenance is far from clear
Brotherly and sisterly love
André and Simone Weil were two sides of the same coin: impatient; determined; brilliant; attracted to ancient wisdom and ideas
All boys together in Pinterworld
A new production of Betrayal reminds us of the playwright’s insights into male relationships
Cold comfort for farmers
A full Brexit would give the UK an opportunity to re-set our relationship with the land and the seas — if the current impasse is resolved so that we are no longer