Inventing the universe, an oriental makeover and Tube trivia—May’s books offer a chance to come up for air and get away from it all

Nature writing is enjoying a resurgence, but the danger of mapping any wilderness is that it immediately becomes tame and dumb. Besides, are there actually any untouched places left?

Why do women biographers get confused with their subjects? Men don't

The fetishisation of history

The television adaptation of Daniel Deronda shows that some of the best costume drama is based on flawed works that few people have heard of

Lytton Strachey bent the rules and even the facts. But he still defines the liberties a biographer can take with a life in service of the truth

Genealogy is now more popular than pornography. What does that say about us?

Two centuries of women's magazine history is coming to an end

Weddings used to be The End. Now, with the help of "Hello" and "OK!" they are only the end of act one

Why television groups bear no resemblance to real life