Giles MacDonogh
A Hidden Place in a Vanished City
The Amber Room: The Untold Story of the Greatest Hoax of the Twentieth Century
By Catherine Scott-Clark, Adrian Levy
Atlantic Books 386pp £17.99
THE AMBER ROOM of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, Russia, is the Loch Ness Monster of modern art history. For the past sixty years the occasional drunk or crackpot has come forward to say he or she has seen it, only to be proved befuddled or mischievous.
The Amber Room, or Bernsteinzimmer, was stolen by German troops in 1941, after they invested Leningrad. Its panels dismantled, it was taken as a trophy to Konigsberg Castle, in the Baltic coronation city of the parvenu Prussian monarchy, and disappeared as the Russians laid siege to Konigsberg in the early
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Under its longest-serving editor, Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair was that rare thing – a New York society magazine that published serious journalism.
@PeterPeteryork looks at what Carter got right.
Peter York - Deluxe Editions
Peter York: Deluxe Editions - When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter
literaryreview.co.uk
Henry James returned to America in 1904 with three objectives: to see his brother William, to deliver a series of lectures on Balzac, and to gather material for a pair of books about modern America.
Peter Rose follows James out west.
Peter Rose - The Restless Analyst
Peter Rose: The Restless Analyst - Henry James Comes Home: Rediscovering America in the Gilded Age by Peter Brooks...
literaryreview.co.uk
Vladimir Putin served his apprenticeship in the KGB toward the end of the Cold War, a period during which Western societies were infiltrated by so-called 'illegals'.
Piers Brendon examines how the culture of Soviet spycraft shaped his thinking.
Piers Brendon - Tinker, Tailor, Sleeper, Troll
Piers Brendon: Tinker, Tailor, Sleeper, Troll - The Illegals: Russia’s Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West by Shaun Walker
literaryreview.co.uk