Reviews I have
written recently, appearing in the Sunday Times.
Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with Kids by Scott
Hershovitz: A philosopher tackles some of life’s trickiest
questions, with the help of Rex, 4, and Hank, 5
(1 May 2022)
Battles of Conscience by Tobias Kelly - the hard price of pacifism:
Being a conscientious objector in wartime Britain was not an easy option
(24 April 2022)
Dinner with Joseph Johnson by Daisy Hay - the man who inspired
Wordsworth, Coleridge and Blake: An unknown publisher brought
together the finest minds of his age
(27 March 2022)
Arnold Bennett by Patrick Donovan - the bestselling author hated by
Virginia Woolf: It’s high time we gave this author the credit he
deserves
(6 March 2022)
No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy by Mark Hodkinson - a hymn to the joy of
reading: One working-class boy and how the discovery of books
changed his life
(20 February 2022)
Conquered by Eleanor Parker - Anglo-Saxon life after the Norman
conquest: Guerrilla warfare, the first Robin Hood and how two
decades after 1066 the English owned only 6 per cent of their own land
(6 February 2022)
Constable: A Portrait by James Hamilton - an eye-opening biography of
the artist: This life of the celebrated landscape painter is full of
surprises (30
January 2022)
Accidental Gods by Anna Della Subin - Prince Philip, Haile Selassie and
Hitler: The men who were declared divine while they were still alive (2
January 2022)
Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit - the George Orwell we didn’t know
about: The author’s little-known love of the natural world is
explored in these curious essays (12 December 2021)
Sybil & Cyril: Cutting Through Time by Jenny Uglow - how two artists
transformed lino into striking images: Sybil Andrews and Cyril Power
are celebrated in a joint biography that’s a ‘joy to read’ (14
November 2021)
The Young HG Wells by Claire Tomalin - The Time Machine author’s endless
promiscuity detailed: HG Wells’s womanising dominates this richly
detailed life (31
October 2021)
The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der
Weduwen - from papyrus scrolls to today: This sweeping history of
libraries is outstanding (17
October 2021)
Making Darkness Light by Joe Moshenska - John Milton as we’ve never seen
him before: This new life of the poet gets up close and personal (3
October 2021)
The
Searchers by Robert Sackville-West - the quest for the lost of
the First World War: A remarkable account of the agonising search
for the missing soldiers of the 1914-18 war (19 September 2021)
The Radical Potter by Tristram Hunt - how Wedgwood astonished the
world: Disability meant this potter could not turn a wheel, but that
didn’t stop his genius (29 August 2021)
The Turning Point: A Year That Changed Dickens and the World by Robert
Douglas-Fairhurst - under the microscope: Was the year of the Great
Exhibition a significant one for Charles Dickens? (22 August 2021)
Writing in the Dark by Will Loxley - how Orwell, Woolf and Dylan Thomas
survived the Blitz: The capital’s writers lived and loved during the
rigours of wartime (25 July 2021)
John Donne by Andrew Hadfield - the blood-and-thunder poet: The
curious life of a Renaissance bard who seemed to hate poetry (27 June 2021)
Time’s Witness by Rosemary Hill - the craze for antiquity: A
magnificent historian on the age of romanticism that inspired artists
and was a goldmine for swindlers (13 June 2021)
The Utopians by Anna Neima - building the perfect society: This
lively history of six projects shows the pitfalls in trying to create
the ideal life (30 May 2021)
Burning Man by Frances Wilson - DH Lawrence’s sinister genius: A new
biography of the writer aims to rescue his controversial reputation (16 May 2021)
How the Just So Stories Were Made by John Batchelor - Kipling’s misery:
Terrible childhood suffering and the loss of two children spurred The
Jungle Book author’s work (9 May 2021)
Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me by John Sutherland - she paid a high
price: The poet’s troubled relationship has been written about many
times, but this biography is unique in its focus on the maligned woman (11
April 2021)
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