Niall Ferguson (the historian, not to be confused with Neil Ferguson the epidemiologist) has written an interesting but peculiar book. It professes to be a ‘general history of catastrophe’. Wars, famines, floods, earthquakes, epidemics, exploding nuclear reactors, rail and air crashes and disasters at sea are all here. But in fact, it is mainly about epidemic disease, in particular Covid-19. Even the parts that are not... read more

Barbara Hepworth’s life was by any standard a remarkable one. It was a triumph of determination. She did not come from a deprived background: her father was a civil engineer who became a well-respected county surveyor for the West Riding of Yorkshire. She went to a good school and was exceptionally gifted musically. She wrote with great clarity and was an accomplished draughts-woman. ... read more

As a tormented young anarchist pacifist pining for radical deliverance while cooped up at home with his parents in Berlin during the First World War, Gershom Scholem felt absolutely committed to one cause: Zionism. The only problem, he acknowledged in his journal, was that Zionists had not yet defined the... read more

Should interpreters have agency? Should they let their choice of words influence the course of events? Thus muses veteran translator Anna Aslanyan at the start of her engaging new book Dancing on Ropes. It’s a question many interpreters must ask themselves as they navigate the perilous waters of diplomacy. It made me think of a news conference in 2002... read more

This book, despite its title, is not really about a quest for a lost city. It is rather a long-overdue biography of the pioneering 19th-century archaeologist and explorer Charles Masson. Masson was an unwilling participant in the Great Game, the jockeying for influence in Afghanistan and central Asia between the British and Russian empires during the 19th century. Recent years have seen new biographies of... read more

A S Byatt is sometimes seen as dauntingly highbrow because she incorporates interests in art, philosophy and science into her writing in ways that make no allowance for less-informed readers. I like that about her. Most writers hope to make a connection, of course, but recently they have seemed more than ever to want to ‘reach out’, urging emotion on the reader. Byatt establishes a welcome distance... read more