Whites and wrongs
Dan Hicks, The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Cultural Violence and Cultural Restitution (Pluto Press)
Criminal insanity
Nigel Biggar reviews Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot, by John Lloyd
Not just democracy
Hong Kong protestors are fighting for British-style institutions
Why are great writers such awful people?
In the wake of renewed controversy over Philip Roth’s treatment of women, Nigel Jones asks whether there is a link between creative genius and sexual unorthodoxy
Krzysztof Penderecki: Credo (Hänssler Classics)
The climaxes are sensational, some of the strongest music Penderecki ever created; we may never see its like again
Can public art ever be any good?
Nobody could accuse Hockney of over-exerting himself
Scapegoat of a paranoid era
Anne Sebba’s book on Ethel Rosenberg is a towering memorial
The decline of David Cameron
With the latest round of humiliating revelations, David Cameron is very much seen as yesterday’s man
Is biography having its very own reckoning?
Blake Bailey has become the latest figure to allegedly fall foul of the uncompromising moral standards of American publishing
Easy miss, I’ve got you
A mild-mannered magazine editor fights for truth, justice and decent wallpaper
A Covid bounce?
The election results on Thursday haven’t proved lockdown sceptics were wrong
Independent minds
Small local publishers are putting out the brightest and best new work
All shall have prizes
There are now so many awards that not winning one must seem a source of shame