This month in culture: March 2025
What to watch this March
Books
Monday
Thursday
Masa Son: the world’s most reckless investor
Gambling Man documents a career punctuated with attention-grabbing successes and abrupt reversals
Thursday
Ali Smith’s latest novel falls flat
Gliff is a different sort of project, but still one which reveals a desire to comment on contemporary culture
Friday
Bill Clinton’s latest memoir sees him at his chirpiest — and most combative
As much as anything else, Citizen is a book of omissions
Will science lead us back to God?
In his new book, Spencer A. Klavan takes his reader through a brief but brilliantly executed history of scientific discovery
Wrestling with Jordan Peterson
The pop psychologist’s new book is not likely to light the fire of faith in any young fan
Cher should stick to what she knows best
Her memoir suggests that the icon doesn’t know what makes her compelling
Why Goethe matters
It is difficult to think of any area of modern life which is not anticipated in Faust
This month in culture: February 2025
What to watch this February
Tuesday
The Killer Angels still sings
Revisiting a classic Civil War novel on its fiftieth anniversary
Sunday
The best film, TV and music of 2024
Spectator writers on their culture picks of the year
Thursday
An insightful account of America’s decline
Matt Purple’s Decline from the Top: Snapshots from America’s Crisis and Glimmers of Hope is a veritable joy to read
How Norman Mailer changed the face of biography
Thirty years ago, two intriguing books by the writer appeared just a few months apart
One hundred years of Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy
The novel is as much a historical artifact as a work of fiction
Lisa Marie Presley’s posthumous book exposes the horrors of celebrity
From Here to the Great Unknown is a tale about the intoxicating highs of the entertainment business, and a grim reminder of its abysmal lows
William Boyd’s latest novel is a smoothly gripping read
Gabriel’s Moon is the welcome return of one of Britain’s most reliably gripping novelists
This month in culture: January 2025
What to watch this month
Tuesday
Pat Barker dives into the first part of Aeschylus’ Oresteia
In The Voyage Home, she takes the infrastructure of legend and invests it with brutal realism
Imperfections in wood lead to perfection in carvings
In Ingrained, Callum Robinson’s aim is not simply to convey his love of working in his chosen way, but to evoke his craft warts and all
Saturday
Cello explains how music helped escape a certain death at Auschwitz
Exploring the relationship between the cello and its player, Kate Kennedy describes how Anita Lasker-Wallfisch’s musical gift enabled her to survive not just one but two Nazi death camps
