Books

Highsmith was a great writer, with a moral vision bracing enough to clarify the terrors of the twentieth century

Davey’s selection has given us a deeper understanding of the value and practice of drawing

At times Portrait of a Muse feels like a Julian Fellowes soap opera where we see this woman of extraordinary vivacity making great men go weak at the knees

Jeremy Black recommends an array of crime fiction novels, both modern and classic, to keep you entertained in January

Stuart Ritchie’s ‘Science Fictions’ reveals a scholar committed not only to his own discipline but to the wider principles underlying all intellectual endeavour

A good field guide, but it won’t make you fall in love with the gull next door

Ministers have always needed people to carry their bags and to tell them what a wonderful job they are doing

Stefan Zweig’s 1939 novel ‘Beware of Pity’ now screams to have its message heeded

Ms Lees offers a new take on the template, but she is walking a well-trodden path

Emily Tamkin’s ‘The Influence of Soros’ is a lucid, subtle and fair-minded attempt to grapple with a tremendously complex legacy