Books

The Soviet spy agency took its Cold War tactics from a Chinese military strategist who died in 500 BC. The same ideas are now being used against Ukraine

For all life threw at her, the writer never lost the last sliver of an innocence battered irreparably by events outside her control

One of Britain’s leading historians explains how the roots of the decision taken seven years ago were laid decades before that

An obsession with what the likes of Pulp Fiction’s Vincent Vega and Succession’s Shiv Roy read on screen

Europe is edging closer to nuclear war. How would we behave in the world that remained?

Too many books about the countryside are over-written and nostalgic. But Rebecca Smith’s brilliant new memoir gets it just right

Even when it comes to humankind’s favourite pastime - world domination - we can’t claim any clear victory over ants

Cleo Watson’s debut novel, Whips, is the latest in a long line of raunchy romps set in the world’s least erotic place – Westminster

The overriding atmosphere of Loti’s output is one of a lost innocence, a yearning nostalgia for a world before the corrupting influence of Europe

A small number of eye-wateringly expensive private schools are ruining Britain – and one stands out from the rest

Great writers give us more than just good stories to read, they help us define ourselves and our place in the world

An exile’s redemptive return to track four generations of family history in the “backyard of a country that still thinks it’s an empire”

Martin Amis once confided his belief that his literary legacy would not last long. It was one of the rare occasions that he was wrong

In an age of stultified self-censorship and blandness, we have lost an author who always ran towards gunfire

How the KGB took their Cold War tactics from a Chinese military strategist who died 500 years before the birth of Christ - and why they still work

In this extract from his new book, our editor-at-large reflects on why The People’s Vote failed... and what makes a successful campaign

Artificial intelligence can create a so-so approximation of what John Betjeman might have made of Brexit. But can it write with soul?

The American right’s culture battles are creating empty shelves in Republican states. Could Britain join in with this madness?

Forget the headlines. Children's reading comprehension is on the decline, and their books are to blame

A new book eschews cosy nostalgia to explore the fractures that Europe’s picture postcard tourist traps keep hidden

Two new novels evoke the eeriness thrumming through small coastal towns, where lives wash up like the debris on the beach

They all did. But they campaigned for it anyway

The irony at the heart of his moral philosophy is as relevant today as it was in the 18th century

Painstakingly plotted, the Swedish author’s bestselling debut Collected Works weighs in at 733 pages – over a quarter of a million words

Looking at the blurred and bloody borders of Habsburg history through the writings of Joseph Roth

Even the greatest of writers – from John Steinbeck to Maya Angelou – suffer from the idea that they’re about to be found out

Raising the spectre of ‘war’ against Covid promoted irrational panic

The great European author, who died earlier this month, didn’t leave Croatia – her country left her

In the literary snake pit, writers and critics tend to either suck up to one another frantically, or bite down hard so as to inject their venom yet deeper

The era of gentle persuasion, finding understanding and preventing conflict seems to be coming to an end. Can it be revived?

How Brigitte Reimann, once an idealistic socialist, wrote one of Germany’s great post-war novels

The Cuddy author has a rare gift for finding the right voice for the right people in the right era