Mark Fisher
A journey towards faith
A novel set during the Algerian war has chilling relevance to what is happening in the Middle East today
Notes from the departure lounge
Robert McCrum’s Every Third Thought asks: how, when, and where are we going after death?
Romantic Revolutionary
James Hamilton’s biography of Thomas Gainsborough offers a portrait not just of the artist but also of the worlds he moved through
Poetry Prospers
The anthology Hwaet! proves poetry is alive and thriving at the Ledbury Poetry Festival
The Value Of Victoria
Paula Bartley’s biography of Queen Victoria, based on the monarch’s letters and journals, brings out surprising contradictions
Where The White Stuff Came From
Edmund De Waal’s personal history of porcelain
Inside The Club
Conviviality and conversation at a bastion of the Establishment
How Top Boys topple down crime’s ladder
Too many prisoners rejoin society with no education, stable housing or job prospects. No surprise that more than half reoffend within a year
In the bleak midwinter
Christmas can be a bleak time of year. While some feel isolated, others are overwhelmed by the need for a perfect family Yuletide when their reality is different
My warnings to our spy watchdogs
Britain is under attack from Russia. And the government is blocking a Parliamentary report that details it