Reformation Divided: Catholics, Protestants and the Conversion of England by...
A superb collection of essays reveal the bloody theological tussles of the 16th century in all their nuancePost-Reformation England, jittery with fears of a Catholic revival, presented a John le...
View ArticleArthur and Sherlock review – ‘diligent study of Holmes and his role models’
Michael Sims investigates Conan Doyle’s real and fictional inspirations for his great detectiveThe best Sherlock Holmes stories were written before 1916, when Arthur Conan Doyle officially converted to...
View ArticlePasschendaele: A New History review – necessary reading on the battle’s 100th...
Nick Lloyd has unearthed a mass of new material for this harrowing account of one of the most infamous engagements of the Great WarPasschendaele has became synonymous with the carnage and perceived...
View ArticleWatling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past by John...
This entertaining journey along an ancient road casts light on modern Britain and the national psycheIn 1964, following a lifetime’s abuse of vodka and cigarettes, Ian Fleming died of a heart attack...
View ArticleThe Cold War: A World History by Odd Arne Westad – review
A huge single-volume history of the power struggle between the US and USSR from 1945-89 is packed with detailed research and food for thoughtWith its shadowy John le Carré atmosphere, communist eastern...
View ArticleBlanche Blackwell obituary
Heiress who became the ‘Jamaican wife’ of James Bond creator Ian Fleming and was supposedly the model for Goldfinger’s Pussy GaloreBlanche Blackwell, who has died aged 104, was a divorcee in her 40s...
View ArticleThe Future of War: A History by Lawrence Freedman – review
One of our leading military thinkers reflects on the risk of nuclear ArmageddonStanley Kubrick’s 1964 cold war satire, Dr Strangelove, contains the immortally silly line: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in...
View ArticleSix Minutes in May: How Churchill Unexpectedly Became Prime Minister – review
Nicholas Shakespeare’s flair as a novelist makes a gripping story of Churchill’s unlikely rise to power in 1940Hitler died amid the flames of Berlin in April 1945. The most reckless criminal in modern...
View ArticleDebussy: A Painter in Sound review – a lasting impression
Stephen Walsh’s fascinating study shows the composer progressing from ‘dainty’ sketches to extraordinary works of our timeThe young Claude Debussy wrote a dainty music redolent of pink lampshades and...
View ArticleThe Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli review – a worthy heir to Stephen Hawking
Is time real or simply a useful measurement of change? The author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics takes us to the limits of our understanding with clarity and styleIn Hitler’s Germany, a handful of...
View Article'I was capturing living history': Jim Grover on his photographs of south...
For a year, photographer Jim Grover immersed himself in the world of south London’s Windrush generation – at home, in church and at the domino club• See a gallery of Jim Grover’s photographs of the...
View ArticleThe Archipelago: Italy Since 1945 by John Foot review – sparkling chronicle...
A lively and meticulously researched account of Italy’s political history, from postwar to presentItaly’s pro-fascist King, Victor Emanuele III, abdicated in disgrace in the spring of 1946. Mussolini...
View ArticleAsperger’s Children by Edith Sheffer review – the origins of autism in Nazi...
In popular legend, Asperger was an Oskar Schindler figure who shielded his charges from euthanasia. The truth is more uncomfortableIn nursing homes across the Third Reich, children diagnosed with...
View ArticleThe Oblique Place by Caterina Pascual Söderbaum review – a family’s dark Nazi...
A ‘castle of murder’ in Nazi Austria is at the heart of this semi-autobiographical family chronicleAttempts to recreate the horrors of the Final Solution in film and fiction are mostly a “macabre...
View ArticleNexhmije Hoxha obituary
Wife of the Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha who was dubbed the Lady Macbeth of AlbaniaTo her enemies, Nexhmije Hoxha, who has died aged 99, was known as the Lady Macbeth of Albania, the sinister hidden...
View ArticleBlack Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture review – superb...
An outstanding study of how ‘the first black superhero of the modern age’ led the world’s only successful slave revolutionIn January 1804, the West Indian island of Saint-Domingue became the world’s...
View ArticleHelgoland by Carlo Rovelli review – the mysteries of quantum mechanics
Having altered how we think about time, the physicist sets his sights on perhaps the most maddeningly difficult theory of allCarlo Rovelli, the Italian theoretical physicist, is one of the great...
View ArticleYou Are Beautiful and You Are Alone review – Nico as the gothic Garbo
Jennifer Otter Bickerdike’s biography is absorbing and informative but paints a flattering portrait of the enigmatic model turned singerThe German-born chanteuse and model Christa Päffgen, better known...
View ArticleThe Sinner and the Saint review – the story behind Dostoevsky’s Crime and...
Kevin Birmingham’s clear and gripping new study of the Russian writer digs deep into the inspiration for RaskolnikovFor many in the west, Fyodor Dostoevsky is the most “Russian” of Russian authors. His...
View ArticleEndless Flight: The Life of Joseph Roth by Keiron Pim review – grand tribute...
This timely, impeccably researched biography details the restless brilliance of the mournful writer who fled Hitler’s Germany and sought solace in drinkThe writer and journalist Joseph Roth was born in...
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