Books
Are we killing ourselves with kindness?
Stefan Zweig’s 1939 novel ‘Beware of Pity’ now screams to have its message heeded
Crooked compendium
Ms Lees offers a new take on the template, but she is walking a well-trodden path
Unravelling the myth of George Soros
Emily Tamkin’s ‘The Influence of Soros’ is a lucid, subtle and fair-minded attempt to grapple with a tremendously complex legacy
Mystery of the clicking keyboard
Out of the Ether is an excellent primer on Ethereum, but the general reader might find the minutiae a bit much
Learning from the past
Much of Wisdom of the Ancients makes one appreciate how we get sidetracked by so much trivial nonsense
J’accuse: the legal system in the dock
As a pupil, Alexandra Wilson frequently encountered racially loaded assumptions. In court, clients assumed she was a defendant
Francisco Goya: the embodiment of old Spain
Janis Tomlinson’s new biography of Francisco Goya is a well-informed, comprehensive biography that would make an excellent gift for any art lover
Slow death of the know-it-all
Peter Burke’s new book helpfully provokes the reader to think about the proper place of a broad education in an age unfriendly to polymathy
A lighter shade of grey
This scholarly, readable and objective book will be the standard biography of Sir Edward Grey for decades to come
Murders for January
Jeremy Black recommends the best murder mysteries to read in the New Year