Unlike so many cricketers since, W G Grace deserves his legend
Two new books reveal how the multifaceted man behind the 19th century’s most famous sporting icon.
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What is fanfiction, anyway?
Once, calling a published, original work “fanfiction” would have been meant as an insult. As the term has gained credibility,…
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William Boyd: Why John le Carré is more than a spy novelist
What Joseph Conrad started, John le Carré enshrined and made modern.
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A Menshevik for all seasons: the diaries of Stalin’s ambassador
Ivan Maisky’s diaries from his time as ambassador are important historical documents. If only this new book wasn’t so indulgent.
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Pat Barker’s Noonday shows the full scale of the Blitz
A novel of sure-footed storytelling and some fine descriptive writing, Noonday reveals the impact of war through a kaleidoscope.
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Walter Benjamin, the first pop philosopher
Ray Monk looks at the life of Walter Benjamin, and discovers how he found his calling.
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Theatrical knotweed: Margaret Drabble journeys around Shakespeare’s globe
It is hard to characterise Andrew Dickson’s Worlds Elsewhere – it is a discursive, rambling, global volume.
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Throwing up the dead: the novelists mimicking Ian Fleming and Stieg Larsson
Anthony Horowitz and David Lagercrantz have produced two crime novels that stick to the tried and tested formulas.
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