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.
ByBiographies
Read all the latest reviews from New Statesman writers of biographies and memoirs.
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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Catherine Taylor’s The Stirrings: a memoir of girlhood in a time of rebellion
These reflections of 1970s Sheffield are steeped in the Cold War and the shadow of the Yorkshire Ripper.
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Cormac McCarthy’s art of war
In Blood Meridian the author reaches the dark heart of the American novel – where violence is timeless.
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The mysteries of late style
Christopher Neve’s study of great painters reveals the risks and rewards of creating art at the end of life.
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From Ferdinand Mount to Isabel Waidner: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Crisis Actor by Declan Ryan and Women We Buried, Women We Burned by Rachel Louise Snyder.
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A trip to the GMB sofa and a lesson for lying politicians
Also this week: awkward encounters at my book launch and Prince Harry takes on the Mirror.
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From the war in Ukraine to the life of Roger Deakin: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Anna Metcalfe’s Chrysalis and Octavia Bright’s This Ragged Grace.
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The memeification of George Orwell
The writer has become a national treasure, moral arbiter and begetter of biographies: do we need a new one?
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Why read life-writing?
Joanna Biggs’ A Life of One’s Own looks to the letters and journals of literary women for guidance. Can they…
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Soldiers in love
Men at War, Luke Turner’s tender account of servicemen’s transgressive private lives, transforms our understanding of the Second World War.
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Derek Parfit: the perfectionist at All Souls
Brilliant and eccentric, the Oxford philosopher spent his career grappling with fundamental moral questions.
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From Amy Key to Tom Clark: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Eve by Claire Horn and A Stranger in Your Own City by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad.
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George Eliot’s marriage plot
In her work, the novelist developed a radical philosophy of relationships. In her life, she put it into practice.
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How Noël Coward became the archetypal English success
A new biography shows how he began life as a revolutionary and ended it hosting the Queen Mother.
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The infinite art of John Donne
His life was blighted by poverty, but his poetry made exhilarating connections between sex, faith and death.
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The blurred ethics of memoir
Blake Morrison’s account of sibling tragedy passes its moral questions on to the reader.
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Pamela Anderson’s fantasy life
In her memoir Love, Pamela the model and actress reveals that despite the trauma and abuse she still sees her…
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From Cariad Lloyd to Ayòbámi Adébáyò: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Tomorrow Perhaps the Future by Sarah Watling and Away From Beloved Lover by Dee Peyok.
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From Don Paterson to Brigitte Reimann: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Pegasus by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud and Sensational by Ashley Ward.
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