The Princess and the Poet
An inscription in an old book is the clue to a lost world of literary salons and love affairs
Deep History Or Just Conspiracy?
Built on misreadings and deceptive elisions, Nancy MacLean's Democracy In Chains reframes the colourful tale of the American Right as a dank, dark conspiracy
Gullible Guests of the Nazis
Julia Boyd's meticulously-researched Travellers in the Third Reich shows visitors to Hitler's Germany saw only what they wanted to see
Romantic Revolutionary
James Hamilton's biography of Thomas Gainsborough offers a portrait not just of the artist but also of the worlds he moved through
Hinterland of a Recluse
Jasper Johns is the J.D. Salinger of contemporary art, whose gnomic work defies easy categorisation
Thespian Agitprop
Why is British theatre about Israel so relentlessly one-note?
Building on Pevsner
Christopher Tadgell's seven-volume Architecture In Context is astonishingly ambitious, and effortlessly even-handed
Towards the end of the story
Stephen Glover's Fleet Street novel Splash! is a burlesque treat
A vase by any other name
An exhibition lets us see objects from Matisse’s studio alongside the paintings he used them in
Look The East End In The Face
Charles Saumarez Smith's East London is a voyage of discovery into the richness and variety of an area in constant flux