Books

Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s ‘Girl Stunt Reporters’ by Kim Todd reviewed

For an artist to qualify as a genius, he only has to do create a single masterpiece once. Twain did it twice

The Madman’s Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities from History by Edward Brooke-Hitching reviewed

The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense by Edward White reviewed

If the author was such a vile misogynist, why did so many women seem to find him so irresistible?

His new book may be self-help, but it’s self-help for people whose problems are fundamentally philosophical

The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale reviewed

The world’s biggest bookstore has sided firmly with the bullies

Paradise: Dante’s Divine Trilogy Part Three. Englished in Prosaic Verse by Alasdair Gray reviewed

There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura reviewed

Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee reviewed

In memory of a friend

Sybille Bedford: A Life by Selina Hastings reviewed

Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris reviewed

How an American outsider wrote the history of our future

The Lives of Lucian Freud: Fame 1968-2011 by William Feaver reviewed

Vonnegut did plenty to offend the conservative Christian sensibilities that characterized my educational institutions

On the joys of armchair travel

Graham Greene needed peace of mind and escapist thrills