King Saul in his pomp — and dotage
Five wives and out? How Saul Bellow’s turbulent private life informed his novels
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
New way to tell a terrible story
New graphic novels take on difficult subject matter: the lives of Hannah Arendt and Anne Frank
Acerbic enemy of cowardice
The latest volume of Frederic Raphael's diaries is a book full of bite and feline gossip
The link between art and heart
A new Barbican exhibition explores how two were often better than one in the creative process
Escaping the Moscow ghetto
How a brilliant young Russian mathematician was blocked by blatant Soviet anti-Semitism
Corbyn’s cunning plan
The British media has labelled anti-Semitism in the Labour Party a “scandal”. This seriously understates the problem
Programmed poetry
"Every time I read of a new algorithm for producing a hit pop song, or software for writing a Man Booker-worthy novel, I know I’m in for a disappointment"
Be civil to siblings
"The government seems to have set itself on a course to discriminate against one minority group: cohabiting blood relatives"
Write on
What are the duties of the modern author? To tweet hourly, to Instagram daily, to podcast weekly, to pen a monthly TinyLetter
Enter the Professor, Putin’s Balkan stooge
The maverick movie director Emir Kusturica backs Russian expansionism in the Balkans
Debt and damnation: Islam in Dante
Edward Said accused the poet of Orientalist prejudice — but he owed much to Muslim tradition
Nationalism is not a dirty word
Nationalism has returned to the front pages. The Western intelligentsia is appalled. Should they be?