Books

Why do we review books?

D.J. Taylor reflects on nearly four decades of hard graft on the literary pages

Airline Maps: A century of art and design

An enjoyable visual book that acts as a history of aviation

A good read but variable as history

A Short History of London is good on architecture but a more sophisticated analysis is needed

A flawed first draft of history

Theresa May’s former political secretary on the biography that doesn’t get her right

The great inquisitor of Splott

John Humphrys’ A Day Like Today touches lightly on his early career, which is a shame

Eternal resurrection

James Orr reviews Tom Holland’s Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind

The brutal purging of God

Giles Udy on Godless Utopia by Roland Elliott Brown

Intolerable intolerance

David Herman reviews The Tyranny of Virtue by Robert Boyers

Mean genius of comedy

Alexander Larman on Happiness and Tears: The Ken Dodd Story by Louis Barfe

Latin hero of love-torn teenagers

Tibor Fischer reviews A Thousand Kisses by Frederic Raphael