Eurofile

From Sally Bowles to George Smiley by way of Kreuzberg and Alexanderplatz, the best books about Berlin

New Yorkers get to be abstemious, at least most of the time, because their weather allows it. Not so here

How the band may have played a bigger part in the country’s history than is yet appreciated

Restaurants like this tapas bar rarely exist in Britain. People are too reluctant to live

Sent from Berlin to London to escape the Nazis, artist Frank Auerbach – who died earlier this month – painted his new surroundings over and over again

The Jewish German writer antagonised Hitler’s regime with every action she took. To me, she was also family

At 86, with a number of all-time classics to his name, Ridley Scott has earned the right to have some fun

Americans aren’t my people, not for one great reason but for a thousand small ones

The troubled journalist forged her place in and around a world to which she never quite belonged

Discussions on whether there are any famous Belgians often throw up the same names – but very rarely is Beethoven one of those suggested

The social club in heart of London’s Little Italy is a cornerstone of working-class Italian culture but is faced with the threat of closure

For well over a decade, Beaujolais Nouveau day was a British obsession. How did an unsophisticated bottle of plonk become big business?

There’s pain and glory in The Last Dream – a patchy collection from the Spanish film-maker – but its highlight is all about his mother

The wisecracking writer was traumatised and transformed by her 1937 visit to Spain to support the Republican cause in the civil war

In the Italian version of Gold Digger, Monica Guerritore rewrites the rules for women

Memories of Law, Jordan and Souness are being replaced by a new generation of Scottish talent taking Serie A by storm

In Andrea Arnold’s feature, Nykiya Adams and Barry Keoghan present a moving performance without straying into sentimentality

Our English language was brought to us across the North Sea by boatmen landing on the east coast

The relationship between Jean Marais and Jean Cocteau was one of the great romances of 20th-century European culture

Only bookable by phone or postcard, this London bistro is heaven to anyone of the Luddite persuasion

As arguments about Notre-Dame’s restoration rage on, a new exhibition gathers together stained-glass windows that caused their own controversy in the 1930s

The buttery, flaky pastries have been a breakfast staple for nearly 200 years. Now they’re being remixed

If a new novel is to be believed, the former German chancellor retired to the countryside and started solving murders

First came a devastating flood.. then a city’s battle to save its cultural heritage

A literary festival that reminds us of the healing power of words

Yes, it’s amusing - but Steve Coogan is no Sellers and this can’t match the Kubrick classic

A London exhibition featuring Joseph Beuys and two more key conceptual artists feels dated if occasionally thrilling

Textured and monumental, Blitz is the work of a great British director at the height of his powers

What he saw as the blandness of tradition bore little or no resemblance to the world he knew and the art he wanted to create