Books
Romantic fantasies of the French in India
A cottage industry of counterfactual history emerged in 19th-century France catering for those mourning India’s ‘loss’ after successive defeats by the British
What’s next for Taiwan?
Invasion by China – long threatened – would result in a serious global depression. But how will the US react?
Britain’s new role as a bastion of black culture
Two books take us from race riots and Teddy Boys to the current ‘Jamaicanisation’ of our cities – and the inflection now hip among white British teenagers
The insoluble link between government and crime
Taxes and prohibition invariably lead to evasion, racketeering and corruption in an endless capitalist cycle, says Mark Galeotti
The merchant as global reporter
Joad Raymond Wren explores the role played by Europe’s polyglot traders in disseminating news before the invention of the telegraph
A rebellious childhood: Lowest Common Denominator, by Pirkko Saisio, reviewed
In droll, sardonic, dialogue-driven scenes, Saisio transports us to her youth in Cold War Finland and her longing to become a writer
With glee to the silvery sea
Before Beeching’s cuts, hordes of British holiday-makers rushed by train to the coast every summer – from ‘bracing’ Scarborough to the ‘Devon Rivera’
A summer of suspense: recent crime fiction
The second world war features in haunting thrillers by Carlo Lucarelli and Andrew Taylor. Also reviewed: A Sting in the Tale, by Mark Ezra; and Kane, by Graham Hurley
Pity the censor: Moderation, by Elaine Castillo, reviewed
As a content moderator of the internet, thirtysomething Girlie is accustomed to stomach-churning videos. But how will she fare in the VR theme park sector?
Tedious, lazy and pretentious – Irvine Welsh’s Men in Love is a disgrace
Clumsy, self-regarding sequels to Trainspotting simply won’t work any more
Bristling with meaning: the language of hair in 19th-century America
Beards, moustaches, whiskers, free-flowing curls or cropped coifs – all were signifiers of morality, trustworthiness or political ideology
Mothers’ union: The Benefactors, by Wendy Erskine, reviewed
Three wealthy Belfast women join forces to defend their sons accused of sexual assault – regardless of rights and wrongs
A marriage of inconvenience: The Bride Stone, by Sally Gardner, reviewed
His capricious father’s will leaves a young English doctor needing to find a wife within two days and seven hours of his return home from revolutionary France
The mixed legacy of Zbigniew Brzezinski, strategist of the Cold War
Successful initiatives during the Carter presidency regarding the USSR, China and Afghanistan were counterbalanced by a serious misreading of the situation in Iran
Assassinations have an awkward tendency to backfire
A prime example – the murder of the SS officer Reinhard Heydrich in 1942 – may have been a technical success for SOE, but brutal reprisals made it an operational disaster
The crimes of Cecil Rhodes were every bit as sinister as those of the Nazis
Through bribery and ruthless exploitation, the unapologetic racist worked to unite Africa under British rule – with consequences that still haunt us today
Elizabeth Harrower – the greatest Australian writer you’ve never heard of
The friend of Patrick White and Christina Stead abruptly withdrew her fifth novel in 1971 and gave up writing altogether – only now to be hailed as ‘one of the great novelists of Sydney’
The force of Typhoon Tyson, Sydney, 1954
After receiving a bouncer from Ray Lindwall that left him temporarily unconscious, England’s fast bowler Frank Tyson swore vengeance and annihilated the Australian team – to retain the Ashes
Maoist China in microcosm: Old Kiln, by Jia Pingwa, reviewed
Smouldering resentment flares to self-destructive violence in a remote village as the Cultural Revolution serves as a pretext for vengeance and exploitation
Hauntingly re-readable: Autocorrect, by Etgar Keret, reviewed
Whether sci-fi vignettes, thought experiments, parables or fables, these tales of parallel universes and artificial realities are suffused by a pervasive melancholy
The shocking state of perinatal care in Britain
Theo Clarke gathers heartbreaking instances of infant mortality, medical malpractice and severe post-partum trauma in the nation’s maternity wards
Eat your way round Paris
Moving anticlockwise through the coil of arrondissements, Chris Newens samples the range of cuisines on offer and examines their histories
Ambition and delusion: The Director, by Daniel Kehlmann, reviewed
Returning from Hollywood to Austria to care for his mother in 1939, the film director G.W. Pabst is seduced by ‘good scripts, high budgets and the best actors’ into working for Dr Goebbels
An unlikely alliance: Drayton and Mackenzie, by Alexander Starritt, reviewed
Two university contemporaries with next to nothing in common find themselves working together to disrupt electricity generation with a scheme to turn tidal power into light
The enigma of Tiger Woods
The Tiger Woods industry continues to flourish, but the man himself never now gives interviews, so any insights into his feelings are second-hand at best
