No sense of history or honour inhibits John Berger from repairing to his Marxist roots in his latest collection of essays. It is a work full of preening self-regard and rancid with bad faith

Clive James's compendium of short essays shows him at his most democratic, irreverent and dazzling. Even the flaws seem to be there for a purpose—to make the reader feel slightly less ignorant

Michael Burleigh's study of the intersection of politics and religion in the 20th century is a monumental accomplishment. But does he let the Catholic church off too lightly?

Fawning and voyeuristic, David Thomson's paean to his screen idol fails to excite the co-author of the "Eyes Wide Shut" screenplay

Martin Amis's Koba is another exhibitionist work-yet endearing and instructive. A Harry Pottering among the ruins of 20th-century political illusions

Thanks to David Cesarani's biography, Arthur Koestler will be remembered as a crackpot sex maniac. This is a travesty of the man who, for all his faults, saw the truth of both Nazism and Stalinism...

The professors of decline are again picking up their pens. Here is a sneak preview of one of the finest of the genre

This column is intended for the happy fewer and fewer who see nothing obsolete in Greece and Rome

Strictly personal

Frederic Raphael's monthly notebook