From Ben Lerner to Simon Heffer: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang and Stay True by Hua Hsu.
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Who makes history?
A study of postwar British politics overstates the influence of its leading personalities.
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Bernie Taupin: good lyricist, bad writer
The songs he wrote with Elton John may be works of art. His bloated memoir is not.
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Elon Musk’s death drive
The tech billionaire built a world that he could rule – then allowed it to destroy him.
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The curse of the cool girl novelist
Her prose is bare, her characters are depressed and alienated. This literary trend has coagulated into parody.
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From Clive Myrie to Danny Cipriani: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring The View From Down Here by Lucy Webster and So To Speak by Terrance Hayes.
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Natasha Walter’s radical inheritance
A daughter’s homage to the mother who had to negotiate family and the urge to activism.
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Richard Osman’s bland Britain
How did the TV presenter’s terminally twee stories of death and Waitrose become the bestselling novels in the UK?
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How to build a dictionary
A new book identifies the army of amateurs, eccentrics and criminals who created the Oxford English Dictionary.
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The strange rebirth of Sinn Féin
Under Mary Lou McDonald the party is on the path to power – but can she keep its uneasy alliance…
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Hobbes was wrong
John Gray’s latest book argues that the new Leviathans of liberalism have led to a war of all against all.
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Naomi Klein’s mirror world
The writer and activist on being mistaken for a conspiracy theorist.
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From Yiyun Li to Wolfram Eilenberger: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Kenneth W Harl’s history of nomadic tribes and Redstone Press’s Seeing Things.
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Homer’s history of violence
Emily Wilson’s translation of the Iliad reveals a bleak vision of the self-interest and savagery of humankind.
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Art shouldn’t be good for you
The idea that culture can make us better people is rife across the political spectrum. But great art doesn’t exist…
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Anne Enright’s damaged lives
In The Wren, The Wren, the Irish author rigorously traces the line between love and trauma.
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Still fighting the history wars
Debates about Britain’s colonial legacy are not just a product of Brexit or woke politics – empire has always been…
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The cruelty of cricket
Nick Compton had talent and a famous name, but the unforgiving sport both hid and exacerbated his insecurities.
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Europe’s race delusions
Built on imperial amnesia and competing nationalisms, the EU has never been the beacon of inclusion it claims to be.
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From Daljit Nagra to Charlie Porter: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring National Dish by Anya von Bremzen and Metropolitan by Andrew Martin.
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