Book Review: The War That Used Up Words

At the outbreak of the First World War, American writers flocked to Europe and headed for the Western Front in order to find their Muse - and to make some quick cash. A new book follows a handful of these earliest chroniclers

Read More

Troppo Sottile

Venice has traded flinty commercial acumen and world-weary merchant princes for an ennui worthy of M. John Harrison's science fiction; her profession has now become the art of insubstantiality. For centuries authors have tried and failed to capture her. Steve Donoghue surveys the glorious wreckage.

Read More

“My Job Is to Be King"

When the long reign of Victoria ended, her son took the throne with a bonhomie the country hadn't seen in a century. The new king ate and entertained prodigiously - and mediated prodigiously as "the uncle of Europe." A Year with the Windsors looks at Edward VII.

Read More