Books

Thick as Thebans

Frederic Raphael reveals how Paul Cartledge makes the case for a central historical role for Oedipus’s home town

Labouring unloved

In the West we’ve yet to make the acknowledgment that overwork can be deadly, says Katrina Gulliver

Wolverhampton wonderer

There is a lesson here for those who prefer to sharpen their knives on the whetstone of grievance

Tragedy of the little Darlings

The relationship between J.M. Barrie and the real life Peter Pan was fatherly, friendly and perhaps something else

World-class snob, first-class diarist

Andrew Roberts says that in these diaries, Channon takes snobbery to a truly pathological level

You can’t make it up

Lisa Hilton asks whether Twitter mobs should be able to police the imagination of novelists and playwrights

Rehabilitation of a great stylist

Christopher Bray thinks Roth’s “novelist’s autobiography” is one of his most fizzing examinations of the stories that construct our various selves

Deeply flawed life of Cap’n Bob

Christopher Silvester reveals how this biography of Robert Maxwell is a skilfully constructed page-turner

Heavy weights and hurty words

Simon Evans says Andrew Doyle’s book is the toolkit you need to think about at least one side of this debate

Fair dinkum dictionary

Jonathon Green wonders if, despite this being a fascinating book, the author has set herself up for defeat