Anne Boleyn’s blunders
A new history shows how the clever, ambitious queen was no match for the post-truth politics of Henry VIII’s court.
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From Gordon Brown to Natalie Haynes: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Family Meal by Bryan Washington and Pure Wit by Francesca Peacock.
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To turn or not to turn?
In his new book, the former New Statesman political editor identifies the defining moments when Britain changed.
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The absurdity of Lessons in Chemistry
The overnight success of Bonnie Garmus’s debut novel is almost as improbable as its contrived plot.
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Myths of the miners’ strike
An oral history of the bitter Eighties dispute reveals a conflict that went far deeper than just government vs trade…
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The dismal world of David Walliams
Lazy prose, stale humour, zero imagination: his bestselling children’s books belong to the Boaty McBoatface school of fiction.
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Requiem for a world war
Jeremy Eichler’s Time’s Echo shows how four great 20th-century composers captured the horrors of conflict.
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Who owns your face?
How the shadowy start-up Clearview sold the power of facial recognition to corporations and states across the globe.
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Mary Beard: “Learning to think should be destabilising”
The historian on eviscerating Boris Johnson, making students cry, and why classics is “not just for posh people”.
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How England lost the Hundred Years War
The final part of Jonathan Sumption’s epic history reveals the complacency that led to the end of English power in…
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From Duncan Hamilton to Lydia Kiesling: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring The Story of Scandinavia by Stein Ringen and Big Meg by Tim and Emma Flannery.
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Bronze Age Pervert will not save the American right
The author of Bronze Age Mindset has galvanised US conservatives – but his adolescent philosophy will soon be forgotten.
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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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