Being a printer was what Benjamin Franklin prided himself on most
Having learnt the trade as a child in London, the polymath established a thriving printing business in Philadelphia, bringing humour and enlightenment to the American millions
The cheerful manifesto of anti-ageism activist Ashton Applewhite
Ashton Applewhite is a leading American ‘inspirer’ on how to make the most of being over the hill. She has…
Burning passions
This is a book which, as one eyes its lavish illustrations and dips into its elegant prose, looks as if…
The cavalier Michael
Michael Moorcock has put his name to more books, pamphlets and fanzines than, probably, even Michael Moorcock can count, but…
No sex, please, in the Detection Club
‘The crime novel,’ said Bertolt Brecht, ‘like the world itself, is ruled by the English.’ He was thinking of the…
An innocent abroad
This massive first instalment of a memoir starts in the quite good year the author was born, 1935, and ends…
The fag-end rescued from the bin
Spectator readers of my vintage will remember their first encounter with Beckett as vividly as their first lover’s kiss. For…
No place for sissies
The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a story for the older reader. One might go so far as to suggest…
Master of suspense
In the outrageous 2010 press hounding of the innocent schoolteacher Christopher Jefferies over the murder of his young female tenant…
Looking at books
The sexy thing this summer, as the TV ads tell us, is the e-book. Forget those old 1,000-page blockbusters, two…
