Poetic Justice
Opal Sunset: Selected Poems 1958-2008 and The Revolt of the Pendulum: Essays 2005-2008 by Clive James
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Sell-Out Show at Tate Modern
Money is the driving force behind too much contemporary art
The Paganisation of Western Culture
We in the Western World have moved on from Christianity to worship the pagan gods of power, money, sex and fame
Horse Power
Russia Against Napoleon by Dominic Lieven
Dazed and Confused
William Golding: The Man who wrote Lord of the Flies by John Carey
The Young Old Master
Was Turner ancient or modern? He himself was in no doubt about his ability to compete with both
Of Human Frailty
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings
Ripping Yarns
The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts Do we really need another history of the Second World War? That’s the question that immediately comes to mind on picking up Andrew Roberts’s weighty
In Love with His Public
Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing by Michael Slater
Henry the First
Kissinger's Year: 1973 by Alistair Horne
Bad Luck with the Weather
John Piper, Myfanwy Piper, Lives in Art by Frances Spalding
The Character of Englishness
Dr Johnson, the greatest writer of critical prose in the English language, was able to impart to his readers both human nature in general, and the character of Englishness in particular