Have you ever heard of the St. Brice’s Day Massacre?
Crypt is a collection of seven essays that unearth details about how certain people lived and died in the past
Books
Friday
Wednesday
Christopher Priest was a grievously underrated novelist
His career represented a sequence of missed opportunities for the world beyond his chosen genre to recognize his skill and quiet profundity
Tuesday
The talented Evan S. Connell
He might be the greatest American novelist you’ve never heard of
Thursday
The frustrating rise of celebrities ‘writing’ children’s books
When you give a child a book by a celebrity, you are feeding their minds with advertising
Sunday
Pat Yale follows her hero across Turkey
Following Miss Bell has a homely tone one doesn’t associate with the majestic Gertrude Bell
Tuesday
In praise of George Gissing, the born exile
The writer was one of the great underrated chroniclers of ’the valley of the shadow of books’
The peculiar American attitude toward death
Taking our mortality too seriously has been an increasing problem in our country. Thank heavens for the satirists who refuse to do so
Wednesday
The marvelous Montalbano
The translation of the Montalbano novels from page to screen ranks as an artistic triumph
A definitive biography of Liz and Dick, Hollywood’s most controversial and glamorous couple
Roger Lewis answers what it is about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor that still hooks us in
Thursday
Barnes & Noble and me
Is the books giant making a comeback?
Saturday
The life of the revolutionary Albrecht Dürer
In his new book, Philip Hoare moves beyond his own hand to make something reckless, marvelous and unforgettable
Tuesday
The Spectator’s 2023 Books of the Year
Our writers weigh in
Meeting Margaret Cavendish
The seventeenth-century philosopher and playwright was a trendsetting, quixotic genius
Friday
America’s professor: the afterlife of C.S. Lewis
He is the myth-maker, the scholar, the convert, the defender of the faith, the rebel, the writer and the teacher
Friday
The roots of J.K. Rowling’s contrarianism
How did the woman who taught a generation to stand up to the Ministry of Magic betray liberal orthodoxy?
Monday
Taking a trip to Russoville
Richard Russo doesn’t do fireworks. Dazzling metaphorical flights are not his thing
Sunday
In praise of encyclopedias
Two new books take on the amorphous subject of knowledge
The great late Yeats
A century ago, W.B. Yeats won the Nobel Prize. It was the start of a remarkable late era for the Irish poet
Sunday
The afterlife of Christopher Hitchens
Faced with a growing pile of Hitchenalia, the obvious question is ‘why?’
The dauntless spirit of Richard Halliburton
The writer’s forgotten imagination and commitment to exploration merit revival