The Hyacinths
Pressed in the soil’s black web, nursed by the rough offhand embrace of frost, the hyacinths turn in their…
Zoffany, Gilbert and George
Johann Zoffany RA: Society Observed, Royal Academy of Arts, until 10 June 2012 Gilbert and George: London Pictures, White…
In Our Own Hard Times
A Mutual Friend: Poems for Charles Dickens, edited by Peter Robinson, Two Rivers Press, 160pp, £10 (paperback) It is…
Wandering Star
A review of Joseph Roth’s letters edited by Michael Hofmann
Looking Outside Oneself
A Thorn in the Flesh, Eddie Linden, Hearing Eye, 52pp, £7.50 (paperback) Echo Soundings, John Weston, Shoestring Press, 88pp,…
The Politics of Humour
David Shrigley: Brain Activity, Hayward Gallery, until 13 May 2012 From the steel casket that is the Hayward Gallery…
A Collective Undertaking
Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam, British Museum, until 15 April 2012 The current ‘Hajj’ exhibition at the…
European Disintegration
HISTORY Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe, Norman Davies, Allen Lane, 848pp, £30 (hardback) As a roll call…
Killing Time
FICTION The Third Reich, Roberto Bolaño, Picador, 288pp, £18.99 (hardback) Since his premature death in 2003 at the age…
The Million-Petalled Flower of Being Here
POETRY The Complete Poems, Philip Larkin, edited by Archie Burnett, Faber and Faber, 768pp, £40 (hardback) When Philip Larkin…
A Design for Life
A re-examination of a national treasure: ‘Terence Conran: The Way We Live Now’ at the Design Museum until 4th March in honour of his eightieth birthday.
Like a Foreign Country
POETRY The Returning Sky, Peter Robinson, Shearsman Books, 108pp, £8.95 (paperback) Peter Robinson’s new collection, The Returning Sky, a…
Both Inquisitive and Afraid
POETRY Collected Poems and Selected Translations, Norman Cameron, edited by Warren Hope and Jonathan Barker, Anvil Press, 176pp, £12.95…
Something a Bit Personal
MEMOIR The Following Game, Jonathan Smith, Peridot Press, 232pp, £14.99 (hardback) With the Kisses of his Mouth, Monique Roffey,…
A Great Leap Forward: But Does a Cliff Lie Ahead?
The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700, Roderick Floud, Robert W. Fogel,…
A Country of Words
NON-FICTION: AUTOBIOGRAPHY A Country of Words: A Palestinian Journey from the Refugee Camp to the Front Page, Abdel-Bari Atwan,…
The Ekphrasis of Philip Gross and Simon Denison
POETRY I Spy Pinhole Eye, poems by Philip Gross; photographs by Simon Denison, Cinnamon Press, 80pp, £11.99 Poems which…
New Collections
POETRY ‘We needed coffee but…’, Matthew Welton, Carcanet, 96pp, £9.95 ‘Voyaging Out’, Peter Abbs, Salt, 80pp, £12.99 ‘As I…
Venice: Pure City
NON-FICTION: TRAVEL Venice: Pure City, Peter Ackroyd, Chatto & Windus, 416pp, £25 Venice is light. Her finest painters have…
Evelyn Waugh’s First Eight Books
The Early Works of Evelyn Waugh, Evelyn Waugh, Penguin, £20 each (hardback) The initial instalment of Penguin’s new, twenty-four…
The Eyes’ Hungers
Hare, Hugh Dunkerley, Cinnamon Press, 64pp, £7.99 (paperback) Hare is a rewarding collection about survival, not just of the…
Commemorative Classics
A look at classic editions on the publication of Penguin’s bicentennial Dickens box set
A Part for the Whole
Great Works: 50 Paintings Explored, Tom Lubbock (with an introduction by Laura Cumming), Frances Lincoln, 216pp, £18.99 (hardback) In…
Enigma Variations
Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan, The National Gallery, 9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012…
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