Books
Busting the myth of the Phantom Major
Thread by thread, Mortimer unpicks the lies of David Stirling’s life
Birth of a four decade nightmare
Time and again, Afghanistan has found its future decided from afar
Rhyme of the times
Within six weeks of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, most of Europe was at war
Modern echoes of ancient history
Stephen Kershaw may have taken accessibility too far in his classical account
The fame game
Why has talking about books become the preserve of know-nothing celebrities?
A shapeless, moving, end in itself
So entropic is Geoff Dyer’s latest that the reader seeks desperately for structure
A prayer for the Holocaust dead
Extra-judicial killing and its long aftermath forms the core of Linda Kinstler’s remarkable new book
Thinkers, writers and storytellers
Narrative, voice and good novels — not always at the same time
Manifesto for how we love now
Louise Perry suggests that ancestral prudence is now lost among the youth
Murders for July
The good, the beautiful and the grotesque
Folly, fantasy and Britain’s defence crisis
Britain has spent scarce resources in support of the fantasy of “Global Britain”
Free speech is fascist
Words must be controlled to ensure that Starmer’s subjects behave themselves
The strange death of the Office for Place
The demise of the Office for Place is a missed opportunity for housing
Assisted dying and the risk of premature surrender
We should be very wary of the circumvention of true palliative care
Total eclipse of the art?
Activistic artists and curators are making art a niche political endeavour
Dark lessons from Canada
Once “assisted dying” is legal, the boundaries of what is permissible expand
Lily Phillips is a Rorschach test
Experience and behaviour are not solely reducible to consent
From El-Alamein to Ukraine
How has the nature of warfare changed since World War Two?
A book about nothing
A new collection from Adrian Chiles is certainly curious
Chill message of Booker shortlist
The contempt of publishers for middle-class life and values is diminishing the novel
Over the line
No one should discipline children for asking honest questions or telling the truth
