Detective novels
Josephine Tey, woman of mystery
Deeply private, her elegant and sharply engaging writing has often been wrongly overlooked
The true darkness of classic crime
It was more authentic than its “gritty” successors
Murders for June
Prepare to be taken to church – this month offers up rich description, promising debuts, and a clerical mystery that manages moral seriousness
Murders for March
A sinister start to the spring
The salvation of crime fiction
In praise of delectably dark escapism
Murders for February
Gripping books and the promise of another
Murders for the New Year
A dark start to 2023
Murders for December
From Sweden to Bombay
Murders for July
The good, the beautiful and the grotesque
This is England, nor are we out of it
Englishness isn’t an ethnicity, or even an idea. It’s more like auto-destructive art
Religion without mercy
Progressivism has all the zeal of Christianity, but none of its emphasis on forgiveness
More than just noise
Berg, Schoenberg, Webern: Piano works (Warner)
International Society for Libdem Consciousness
It’s a cult, but at least it’s one of the cheerful ones
The election is still Trump’s to lose
His performance has been weak but his advantages are many
What we don’t talk about when we talk about mental illness
We talk about mental health differently – but is it an improvement?
Murders for November
Another mélange of murders, from Japan to Scotland
Democracy is being undermined in Northern Ireland
Brussels and London are both being reckless about Stormont
Exilic yearnings
Miklos Rozsa: violin concerto (LSO Live)
Tense present
Our demand for immediacy makes it difficult to appreciate the past, the present or the future
Much more than mere child’s play
Children’s literature is the platform on which everything else is built
