Features

Bullfighting was a lifelong fascination for Francis Bacon and played an increasingly important role in his work, his high-risk approach matching that of the matador

W. Sydney Robinson, the historian’s latest biographer, discovered that his subject was without scruple in matters of the heart

Lincoln Allison is moved by a cache of his father’s wartime love letters and what they reveal about conflict, his parents’ relationship — and a huge generational chasm

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

Nick Cohen on the ill-starred but seductive love affair between writers and alcohol

Central banks will come under increased pressure to “do good” by politicians

Laurence Fox has better credentials for engaging with the woke generation than the average Tory MP

Daniel Johnson says the fact that Foucault scholars now overlook his advocacy for sex with boys shows the great libertine failed to overturn Judaeo-Christian morality

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

Minoo Dinshaw fills in the gaps in an official guide to Scottish history