Charlie Connelly
19 April 2023
Manfred von Richthofen: A gentleman warrior of the skies or a ruthless killer?
The Red Baron shot down a total of 80 allied aircraft in a flying career that made his name immortal both in aerial combat and the history of aviation itself
Read the full article19 April 2023
Sweden’s ultimate long read: The meticulous Lydia Sandgren
Painstakingly plotted, the Swedish author’s bestselling debut Collected Works weighs in at 733 pages – over a quarter of a million words
Read the full article13 April 2023
Some kind of elaborate fraud: The curse of imposter syndrome
Even the greatest of writers – from John Steinbeck to Maya Angelou – suffer from the idea that they’re about to be found out
Read the full article13 April 2023
Sartre and Huston: The collaboration tormented by an absolute aspiration
John Huston and Jean-Paul Sartre came together to create a film based on the life of Sigmund Freud, but the project was scuppered by irreconcilable creative differences
Read the full article30 March 2023
Dubravka Ugrešić, the writer who didn’t belong
The great European author, who died earlier this month, didn’t leave Croatia – her country left her
Read the full article30 March 2023
Max Ernst: A surrealist’s personal and prescient take on war
The German-born artist created his melancholy and nightmarish Europe After the Rain II during the most frightening and uncertain period of his own life
Read the full article23 March 2023
Siblings: The moving story of a family divided by the Berlin Wall
How Brigitte Reimann, once an idealistic socialist, wrote one of Germany’s great post-war novels
Read the full article23 March 2023
Giulietta Masina, the wide-eyed waif who captivated Fellini
The diminutive Italian actress, star of La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, was more than a match for her husband, director Federico Fellini, on and off set
Read the full article16 March 2023
Benjamin Myers’s novel approach to the past
The Cuddy author has a rare gift for finding the right voice for the right people in the right era
Read the full article16 March 2023
From hell to eternity: The enduring popularity of All Quiet on the Western Front
The latest screen adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel has scooped four Oscars and seven Baftas
Read the full article16 March 2023
Galina Ulanova: the best ballerina in the world
She was that rarest of dancers, one who could apparently transcend physics and the limitations of the human body
Read the full article09 March 2023
The stories of their afterlives
Should undiscovered Terry Pratchett stories, and other posthumous work, be published?
Read the full article09 March 2023
Fernando Rey: from fighting fascism to international stardom
The remarkable career of the Spanish republican soldier who stumbled into the film industry
Read the full article02 March 2023
Sergei Prokofiev: From privilege to persecution
After decades of success in the US and Europe, the Russian composer suffered an ignominious demise in 1950s Moscow
Read the full article02 March 2023
The magical mysteries of Ivor Cutler
Celebrating 100 years of the subversive eccentric feted by the Beatles and John Peel
Read the full article23 February 2023
Alexander Archipenko: The artist who outpaced time
The Ukrainian-American was forward thinking in his willingness to combine art with the world of science and engineering
Read the full article23 February 2023
Svetlana Alexievich, historian of the soul
Svetlana Alexievich’s books chart the horrors of history through witness testimony rather than fiction
Read the full article16 February 2023
Ferruccio Lamborghini: The farmer’s son who tweaked Ferrari’s nose
He was born into a farming family, but it was always the agricultural machinery rather than the land itself that fascinated the young Ferruccio
Read the full article16 February 2023
Fighters for their way of life
A gripping work of literary fiction – soon to be a Netflix series – sheds light on the Sámi’s plight
Read the full article09 February 2023
Roger Vadim: The director defined by the women on his arm
Some credited him for paving the way for the nouvelle vague, but the Frenchman seemed to be content being known for his wives
Read the full article09 February 2023
The joy of texts
Are bulging bookshelves really “smug and cultish” – or sources of much-needed tranquility?
Read the full article02 February 2023
Maria Schneider: The actress scarred by Last Tango in Paris
One scene, for which she was not prepared, defined the career of an actress who never wanted to be a star
Read the full article02 February 2023
Mining for a glint of gold
What a new collection by some of France’s greatest writers tells us about the art of the short story
Read the full article26 January 2023
Alexandra of Yugoslavia: The pawn in an international game she never truly understood
Nothing in the life of Alexandra, Princess of Greece and Denmark, Queen of Yugoslavia, was ever truly her own
Read the full article26 January 2023
Here lies a rose, a budding rose
I set out on a quest to find the grave of a someone I never knew, thanks to a book with a story
Read the full article19 January 2023
Anna Pavlova: The ballerina with the zeal of an evangelist
The Russian always insisted she could never envision a life without dancing
Read the full article19 January 2023
The science and fiction of Cormac McCarthy
Two late works shed light on his four-decade link with a remarkable scientific institution
Read the full article12 January 2023
Henri-Georges Clouzot: The auteur who explored the darker corners of the human psyche
The French director's obsessive desire for perfection proved ultimately self-destructive
Read the full article12 January 2023
The woman who saw Jesus
A new book tells the story of two of Britain’s most famous mystics
Read the full article05 January 2023
Bookshelves are becoming the preserve of the privileged
There are literary delights to look forward to this year – but authors won’t be getting a pay rise
Read the full article31 December 2022
Kurt Schwitters: The German artist defined by war
The riptide of 20th century politics had pulled him from his homeland and set him adrift. A tumultuous period that soon defined his work
Read the full article30 December 2022
2023 will be the year books make history
Three works which will require room on your shelves
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