Simon Baker
Eloquent Moaning
Mother’s Milk
By Edward St Aubyn
Picador 279pp £12.99
The demise of well-to-do bohemian England must be one of the longest terminal illnesses on record. It was dying in the fiction of Evelyn Waugh and of Nancy Mitford, and yet sixty years later, in Edward St Aubyn’s new novel, we find it gamely dying still. This time, however, things finally seem to be critical.
Mother’s Milk is plotted with deliberate minimalism. Its subject is not a set of events but rather the states of mind of its characters, and in particular that of Patrick Melrose, around whose mid-life crisis the novel turns. Patrick, who appeared as a younger man in St Aubyn’s first three
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
Is the regulation of speech necessary for achieving wider social goods?
Jonathan Sumption examines the question.
Jonathan Sumption - War of Words
Jonathan Sumption: War of Words - What is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea by Fara Dabhoiwala
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1524, hundreds of thousands of peasants across Germany took up arms against their social superiors.
Peter Marshall investigates the causes and consequences of the German Peasants’ War, the largest uprising in Europe before the French Revolution.
Peter Marshall - Down with the Ox Tax!
Peter Marshall: Down with the Ox Tax! - Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War by Lyndal Roper
literaryreview.co.uk
The Soviet double agent Oleg Gordievsky, who died yesterday, reviewed many books on Russia & spying for our pages. As he lived under threat of assassination, books had to be sent to him under ever-changing pseudonyms. Here are a selection of his pieces:
Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books
Book reviews by Oleg Gordievsky
literaryreview.co.uk