Goodbye to the Blonds
The generation of idiosyncratic proprietors who changed the face of the British book industry
Etta Parsloe
Twitter vigilante
Max & Heidi Whitlow
Round Robiners
Julien Spirtle
Comeback Kid
Terry Rant
Ageing controversialist
Bunty Malone
Best-selling novelist
Cheryl Partington
Media Don
Sandy Devereux
Smallscreen scriptwriter
Brief encounters and romps in the park
George Orwell pursued women with enthusiasm and varying degrees of success
Why do we review books?
D.J. Taylor reflects on nearly four decades of hard graft on the literary pages
Rambling through Chesham and Amersham
Each constituency has a unique and fascinating history
Inclusion is an illusion
LNER – the railway that is too LGBTQI+ inclusive for “ladies and gentlemen”
Murders for late May
From psychological character studies to witty and fast-paced detective novels, Jeremy Black rounds up the best crime fiction for late Spring
Ignoring race won’t help anything
The dangers of pathological altruism
After the goldrush
Hannah Betts finds a way to live with her pet hate — denim jeans
Flying fiends
The wasp may be hated, but you’d be amazed by its intelligence
Regulating the afterlife of Ministers
In light of the Greenshill Affair, John Bowers explains how Lord Pickles should lead the advisory committee
Burning down the House
Parliament will be destroyed if the narrow-minded idiocy of MPs like Dehenna Davison get their way
A new democratic alliance
The world needs to rekindle its democratic alliances to counter China’s growing techno-authoritarian power
Murders for early May
From seedy sex clubs to the streets of Paris: Jeremy Black selects British Library Crime Classics to enjoy over the May Bank Holiday