Books & literature
Issue 164 November 2009
Imagine there's no Stalin
21st October 2009 - Issue 164
Two new biographies help us to ask one of the great unanswered questions of the last century—what would have happened had Trotsky led the Soviet Union?
Comment (0)The way we were
21st October 2009 - Issue 164
Three extracts from diaries and memoirs recording first encounters.
Issue 161 August 2009
Money for nothing (and clicks for free)
21st October 2009 - Issue 161
Chris Anderson's big idea is to charge nothing for everything. It's good publicity for his own brand; but not necessarily good business for everyone else
Dirty, sexy money
21st October 2009 - Issue 161
What can Darwin tell you about your shopping habits? According to evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller, the answer is pretty much everything
It's realism, but not as we know it
21st October 2009 - Issue 161
Iain Banks lives a double life as both a leading mainstream and genre novelist. Yet his latest book makes that dividing line look increasingly permeable
The books I forgot to remember
21st October 2009 - Issue 161
To introduce our pick of summer books, satirist Craig Brown tries—really tries—to recall some of his all-time favourites
Seven books to read this summer
21st October 2009 - Issue 161
Summer books, featuring John Gray, Julie Myerson, Mark Thompson & others
Issue 160 July 2009
A beautiful science
21st October 2009 - Issue 160
Those sceptical about psychiatry will find a poor champion in Richard Bentall. The most enthralling of the medical sciences deserves a better critic
Fathoming financial failure
21st October 2009 - Issue 160
Two impressive books on the financial crisis shed some light on its causes. Yet questions of blame and consequence are still being skirted
Britain’s woodland idol
21st October 2009 - Issue 160
I was inspired to write a series of books about Robin Hood by dreams of a noble rebel. But I discovered a far more savage and mysterious figure
Smallscreen
21st October 2009 - Issue 160
Although it had its moments, much of the BBC's poetry season was a lesson in why celebrities shouldn't "do" literature
Flaubert's flame
21st October 2009 - Issue 160
While writing a biography of a Victorian grande dame, I unearthed an unexpected - and previously unknown - trove of letters between her and Gustave Flaubert
Issue 159 June 2009
The global war for souls
21st October 2009 - Issue 159
Religion is once again one of the most urgent fields of human experience. Now an important new book has startling things to tell us about its future
One nation under tarmac
21st October 2009 - Issue 159
Many Britons spend a twelfth of their lives driving, yet we barely examine the roads beneath our wheels. Now Joe Moran has told the story of a vast, unseen world
The two faces of Isaiah Berlin
21st October 2009 - Issue 159
On the 100th anniversary of his birth, the second volume of the letters of one of the 20th century's great intellectuals makes strange reading: in turn troubling, exasperating, two-faced, self-absorbed - and laced with wit, provocation and soaring intellectual flights
Issue 158 May 2009
Why dead aid is dead wrong
21st October 2009 - Issue 158
The argument that aid isn't working is gathering global momentum. But we should we be wary of the analysis offered in Dambisa Moyo's influential new book
In possession of all the facts
21st October 2009 - Issue 158
No one melds history, drama and ideas with more panache than AS Byatt. So it's a shame that her latest novel leaves readers so little to do other than admire
A dedicated follower of fatuousness
21st October 2009 - Issue 158
Linda Grant has written a book about clothes. The only problem is, it's awful. What on earth was going on in her head as she wrote it?
Is inequality to blame for all social ills?
21st October 2009 - Issue 158
There is a growing academic and even political consensus about how damaging inequality, not just poverty, can be. But things may not be as simple as they seem
Cultural notebook
21st October 2009 - Issue 158
In Abu Dhabi, the Arab novel is being thrust towards a global stage. But is Waterstone's ready for metatextual religious sagas?
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