Hayek was not, and always insisted that he was not, a laissez-faire economist

Greatness does not always declare itself in torrents of Slavic emotion or Germanic intellectualism

Soden shares the spoils of untrammelled access: vivid evidence of the man not seen

Love Me Fierce in Danger reads as a book for fans, inured to the World of Ellroy

The things Beethoven never did

Heilbron writes with authority and – what is more unusual – genuine passion

A new book on journalism gets it wrong

Keir Davidson draws on abundant family archives to paint extensive biographies of artistic and scientific patronage

Writers with biographies to match their books

Peter Stothard’s penetrating biography could not be more apposite in this age of political turmoil