Books
Nothing works: The End of Everything, by John M. Harrison, reviewed
Set in ‘one of the well-known seasonal waterside art towns of Kent’, Harrison’s novel is both a bracing vision of environmental collapse and a post-Brexit cri de coeur
Tuscan escapades: Villa Coco, by Andrew Sean Greer, reviewed
An American archivist, hired to catalogue an elderly baronessa’s antiques, finds himself drawn into increasingly absurd adventures in the Italian countryside
Symbol of wisdom or harbinger of death – the owl preserves its mystery
The many legends of humans and gods taking owl form continue to give the ghostly nocturnal predator an indefinable allure
The agonies of an abandoned wife: Mrs Dickens, by Emily Howes, reviewed
Charles Dickens is cast as a cruel, coercive controller, accusing the mother of his ten children of idleness and stupidity before discarding her for a younger woman
The disgrace of Juan Carlos of Spain, a modern-day Don Juan
The once popular king was forced into exile in 2014 when rumours of profligacy, illegitimate children and ‘an unbridled sexual appetite’ finally caught up with him
The botched coup that presaged the end of the Soviet Union
In August 1991, Vladimir Kryuchkov, the head of the KGB, attempted to oust President Gorbachev. But the plot’s failure was guaranteed when the army refused to fire on protestors
In the dazzling company of Alexander Pope and friends
For three months in Twickenham in 1726, Pope and his guests John Gay and Jonathan Swift worked on their satirical masterpieces while entertaining each other with their repartee
The sham shaman: the fantastic lies of Carlos Castaneda
An entirely invented memoir, supposedly relaying the wisdom of a Mexican guru, was not only a cult bestseller but was endorsed by anthropologists and even UCLA
Jaded and adrift: I Want You to Be Happy, by Jem Calder, reviewed
Two lonely residents of east London, well-matched in their attachment to idle dreams, make an awkward stab at a relationship
The world’s most beautiful man in a den of iniquity
The actor Alain Delon emerges as an habitué of France’s brutal underworld in a comprehensive investigation of the 1968 Markovic Affair
Mapping the Emerald Isle: Land, by Maggie O’Farrell, reviewed
‘Maps are acts of colonisation, enemy tools,’ says Tomás, a reluctant cartographer in 19th-century Ireland, where cruel English landowners lord it over soulful, downtrodden locals
Signs of impending doom: The Given World, by Melissa Harrison, reviewed
When the cuckoo is no longer heard and even the last badger shuffles off, the inhabitants of Lower Eodham, a village mentioned in Domesday, sense that change can no longer be resisted
The importance of fairy tales in testing times
The fairy tale stems from our hopeful desires, says the folklorist Jack Zipes – who sees the Land of Oz as a utopian antidote to emerging American capitalism
The Panic of 1873 seems eerily familiar
Rapid technological change, real estate bubbles and a heavy reliance on debt helped precipitate the first Great Depression, with striking parallels to the situation today
Will robots simply bore us to extinction?
In an attempt to relieve the drudgery of warehouse work, technology has now eliminated all need for human decision-making, Sarah O’Connor discovers
The humiliating truth about the way we think
We overrate our capacity for rational deliberation, says Turi Munthe, when weather, soil, climate and geography are what really determine of our opinions and beliefs
Putin and Erdogan are playing with fire in the Balkans and the Caucasus
As Russia and Turkey jostle for influence in Europe’s overlooked corners, regional tensions begin to resemble those in the build-up to the Great War
Wham! How George Michael shot to stardom straight from school
The singer himself described his career as ‘unreal’, and admitted that one reason for cruising was the rare chance it gave him to meet ‘ordinary people’
The Battle of Cross Street: High and Low, by Amanda Craig, reviewed
A group of writers in north London find themselves under siege in the local café as race riots erupt in a divided neighbourhood
The wonder of Nature’s ability to heal itself
Even with minor initiatives such a reforestation and accessing lost water resources we can help Nature rebalance and avoid environmental catastrophe, says Thomas Crowther
Insufferable martinet or inspirational hero? Field Marshal Montgomery was both
An abusive childhood may help explain the contradictory character of Britain’s great second world war commander, says Gary Mead
Portrait of an addict: Keshed, by Stu Hennigan, reviewed
Hennigan’s doomed protagonist Sean surveys the wreckage of his past life as he drinks himself into oblivion
Reading between the lines: the power of the unsaid
Kate McLoughlin explores the various silences in English literature – of rapture, intimacy, failure, avoidance and inarticulable grief
Caroline Aherne’s comedic genius is much missed
No one today can unmask pomposity and self-obsession as devastatingly as Aherne did in the guise of the faux-naive Mrs Merton
The banality of Hélène von Bismarck’s view of Britain is astounding
Philip Hensher 13 June 2026 9:00 am
The passionate EU supporter seems to scold Britain for taking a contrary path while barely acknowledging the rights and freedoms the British have long taken for granted