News and reviews
Offa reviewed in the TLS
Added on 10/07/2026
The eighth-century king Offa of Mercia retains a place in the collective memory of both the English and the Welsh as the instigator of the great dyke that bears his name, which runs roughly along the Welsh border from sea to sea.
READ MOREThe Black Cross reviewed in the TLS
Added on 10/07/2026
Malbork Castle, once known as Marienburg, is a breathtaking sight. Rising above a bend in the Nogat River in northern Poland, the vast red-brick citadel is the largest castle in the world.
READ MORELiving Torches in the Soviet Bloc reviewed in the TLS
Added on 10/07/2026
There is something particularly disturbing about suicide by fire. It seems contrary to instinct to subject oneself to extreme physical suffering that might take days to result in death, or that might cause disfigurement or permanent injuries if it does not succeed.
READ MORECaroline Aherne reviewed in the TLS
Added on 10/07/2026
As one of a crop of hugely influential British comedians who made their mark in the 1990s, Caroline Aherne has arguably received less critical attention than some of her male peers. David Scott’s book, Caroline Aherne: Rebel in disguise, is an attempt to correct that.
READ MOREThe Poetry of Suicide reviewed in the TLS
Added on 10/07/2026
“Long falls your exit all repeatingly”, wrote John Berryman in “Dream Song 172”, expressing in his distinctive syntax the legacy of suicide for those bereaved by it – and for the posthumous reputations of those who leave by that route. It’s a jarring poem depicting Sylvia Plath as the face of suicide, but Berryman is far from alone in making that association.
READ MOREConflict and Loyalty reviewed in the LRB
Added on 09/07/2026
The defining characteristics of our political system – a parliamentary monarchy in a union-state – emerged in the course of two fraught decades at the turn of the 18th century, between the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland in 1707.
READ MOREA Spy Amongst Us reviewed in the LRB
Added on 09/07/2026
The defining characteristics of our political system – a parliamentary monarchy in a union-state – emerged in the course of two fraught decades at the turn of the 18th century, between the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland in 1707.
READ MORENabila Ramdani writes in the LRB
Added on 08/07/2026
When I interviewed Jean-Marie Le Pen in Marseille at a party rally during his fifth presidential campaign in 2007, he told me with pride how he had started the Front National with other colonial army veterans who had failed to keep Algeria French, and former Third Reich conscripts who had fought for Hitler.
READ MOREThe Kiss reviewed in the Guardian
Added on 08/07/2026
If, on a European holiday, you get flustered greeting people – should you kiss? how many times? – spare a thought for Dutch theologian Desiderius Erasmus.
READ MOREPaul Celan reviewed in Literary Review
Added on 01/07/2026
Paul Celan, generally reckoned the most important postwar poet writing in German and perhaps any language, thought that ‘true poetry is antibiographical’, though he also insisted that not a single line he wrote was not linked to his existence.
READ MORETrinity reviewed in Literary Review
Added on 01/07/2026
Trinity (not to be confused with Frank Close’s book about the nuclear spies) is a pictorial record of the most important single event of the 20th century.
READ MOREStephen Sondheim reviewed in Literary Review
Added on 01/07/2026
Most artists can expect a slump in reputation with their deaths, but, five years after his passing at the age of ninety-one, the shine has yet to wear off Stephen Sondheim.
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