Books
Super Thursday
The busiest day of the publishing calendar offers hope for some, but ruin for many
Dining out, dying out
Alexander Larman on William Sitwell’s luxurious history of eating out
An incomplete history of the Swinging Sixties
Any history of the 1960s that neglects mass culture is not to be taken entirely seriously
Melancholy of obsolete futures
Alexander Adams on Soviet Brutalism and where to read about it
A flawed analysis on the rise of transnational authoritarianism
György Schöpflin on Anne Applebaum’s Twilight of Democracy
All Booked Up
Is there a cure for bibliomania?
The demise of the second-hand bookshop
Why Oxfam bookshops, as tremendous as they are, may be the end of the second-hand bookseller
Footnoting the Belfast Agreement’s invisible annex
Owen Polley reviews Breaking Peace: Brexit and Northern Ireland by Feargal Cochrane
How I discovered secondhand books
A home with books is a launching pad for a life well lived, says Daniel Johnson
How to cheat the bestseller list
Buying your way into the book charts is more widespread than you might think
It takes all sorts
Patrick Galbraith on rural racism and the fear of outsiders
Britain’s contrarian Cassandra
Peter Hitchens is the courageous Cassandra of our age. But is his unrelenting pessimism undermining his conservative message?
In defence of conspiracy theories
Daniel Miller says conspiracy theories should be treated and judged like any theory
See, the conqu’ring hero comes – to be ridiculed by vegans
A Procrustean bed of critical theory is examining a British military hero – with predictable results
Vienna is becoming much like every other European capital
“Vienna is different” is the city’s proud motto, but sadly, Vienna is much like every other European city
European champions
Kampfner has written a scrupulously researched yet not uncritical tribute to postwar Germany
Happy Holidays?
View from Oxford: a year in woke
Letter from Washington: America’s ambiguous interregnum
What Trump’s clumsy attempt to defy the election proves
Is there a cultural Iron Curtain emerging in Europe?
Central and eastern European states want a better standard of living, but not at the cost of their sovereignty
Paul Heaton: an undervalued musical genius
For all his success, Heaton remains surprisingly niche – which is probably just how he likes it