Themmens get everything
A wide river can separate people on either bank. It has also been known, from time to time, to keep them safe.
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A Gulf not a Channel
The English do not understand the French, or at any rate didn’t until the master thinkers of structuralism and poststructuralism began to invade their universities.
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Sterne at 300
The publication of Tristram Shandy, an anti-novel that became a model for many more, transformed him from an obscure country clergyman into the toast of London.
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Two Cheers for Democracy
A new book by David Runciman argues that democracies are superior to autocracies when it comes to riding out crises. Perhaps, but are they any longer fully democratic?
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Letter from Dr Zareer Masani
The author of a biography of Macaulay replies to criticism in a recent review.
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It’s polyphony, but with a murder
Tipperary writer Donal Ryan’s novel is one of four which, together with one non-fiction title, have been nominated for the Guardian First Book award.
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An Unoffending Refusal
A refusal can often offend, but this is less likely to be the case when it’s written in verse and composed by Margaret Atwood.
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Prix Goncourt winner
France’s most prestigious literary prize has been awarded to Pierre Lemaitre, a writer previously best known for his crime novels.
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D’Annunzio biography takes Johnson prize
Britain’s major prize for non-fiction has been won by a biography of the Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio.
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Camus and Algeria
Albert Camus was born a hundred years ago this week. Towards the end of his short life he parted company from most French opinion on both left and right over the future of Algeria.