A trio of 20th century novels each offer a different desideratum for the discerning lounger

We remain interested in Tocqueville because of the power of his thought, not his life story

Make the monarchy a spiritual vacuum, and it will soon be filled with nihilism

Evocation of a more hopeful culture lost is both the book’s strength and weakness

Brian Groom’s Northerners weaves together a rich seam of rebels and innovators

Thread by thread, Mortimer unpicks the lies of David Stirling’s life

Time and again, Afghanistan has found its future decided from afar

Within six weeks of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, most of Europe was at war

Stephen Kershaw may have taken accessibility too far in his classical account

So entropic is Geoff Dyer’s latest that the reader seeks desperately for structure