Book review

Conquistadores: A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest by Fernando Cervantes reviewed

Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Fiona Sampson reviewed

Will Tripp Goes Hollywood by Harry Stein reviewed

The Crichel Boys: Scenes from England’s Last Literary Salon by Simon Fenwick reviewed

Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn reviewed

Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter — Then, Now, and Forever by John McWhorter reviewed

While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams reviewed

The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos by Sohrab Ahmari reviewed

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

From the sounds of Strauss to the stories of Joseph Roth

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

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

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

The Denial by Ross Clark reviewed

The Spectator’s writers and friends recommend the best books, richest reads and most pandemical page-turners of 2020

A virtual visit in the author’s beloved Los Angeles

Mussolini’s War: Fascist Italy from Triumph to Collapse, 1935-1943 by John Gooch reviewed