Wednesday 3rd December 2025

Books

Illuminating American conservatism: William F Buckley’s biography, reviewed

The ornate, Latinate vocabulary. The debates peppered with witticisms. The patrician air, the untraceable accent, the playful glint in his eyes.  William F. Buckley was arguably the most influential American...

What I discovered when I started reading French books

My most hated subject at school was French. I mean, I hated every subject...

The lying life of authors: John le Carré and authorial double-lives

“I’m not a spy who writes novels, I am a writer who briefly worked...

The caring individual: John le Carré at the Weston

At the back of the Weston Library, in a small room off to one...

Rock’s best storyteller

"Darnielle's new novel confirms the status that Rolling Stone granted him; Rock's best storyteller", writes Barney Pite.

House of Fear and the reinvention of fairytale

Libby Cherry writes about the feminist undertones to Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet

Nancy Drew – feminist icon or tired corporate creation?

Ellie Duncan explores whether the children's detective series Nancy Drew is progressive or not

Not Forgetting William Hazlitt

Despite critical acclaim, William Hazlitt is now scarcely read.

Turtles All The Way Down review: messy, clichéd, and pretentious

John Green’s latest novel is a messy, sprawling cliché, writes Barney Pite

Angel Hill review – ‘It may be simple, but it isn’t empty’

Michael Longley’s Forward Prize short-listed collection is elegant and timeless, writes Barney Pite

An improbable journey to the East

Sam Dalrymple reflects on mundanity and self-discovery in Bouvier’s The Way of the World

Reconsidering the Lobster: Wallace’s Dostoyevsky

David Foster Wallace cuts to the core of what makes Dostoyevsky invaluable, writes Barney Pite.

Project 1917: The revolution will be tweeted

The historical Project 1917 is bringing new life to the Russian Revolution, writes Lucy Enderby

Assassination attempts amid the violence that tore Kingston apart

The first book written by a Jamaican to win the Man Booker Prize is an epic in the truest sense of the word, writes Jacob Cheli

Exploring the poetry of the everyday world

Quiet, mysterious Haruki Murakami fuses local culture with global emotions, writes Lucy Enderby

Alain de Botton: “The university system is failing people”

Author Alain de Botton, founder of the School of Life, talks philosophy, mental health and the education system

Meet Woolf’s doll house inspiration

A miniaturised book which inspired Woolf's Orlando is to be published

In this fractured world, does empathy really hold us all together?

Against Empathy is a compelling and relevant reevaluation of compassion

There’s more to prehistory than cave drawings and diplodocuses

Katie Sayer revisits Yuval Noah Harari's tale of a revolutionary world

A flawed man with a revolutionary aim

Ethan Croft explores Philippe Girard's admirable Toussaint Louverture: a revolutionary life

The science books that every non-scientist should read

Rosalie Wells lists the best science and medicine books to read this summer

“A woman sitting alone, doing nothing”

Tilly Nevin reviews Mary Ruefle’s stunning and startling new collection 'My Private Property'

A rhetorical revolution on Trump?

Ethan Croft explores the academic discussion of Donald Trump's election and administration

Interview: A.C. Grayling

John Maier in conversation with A.C. Grayling about New Atheism, analytic philosophy, and the EU

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