Books

Mary Beard: “Learning to think should be destabilising”

The historian on eviscerating Boris Johnson, making students cry, and why classics is “not just for posh people”.

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The final part of Jonathan Sumption’s epic history reveals the complacency that led to the end of English power in…

By Brendan Simms

Also featuring The Story of Scandinavia by Stein Ringen and Big Meg by Tim and Emma Flannery.

By Jonny Ball, Megan Gibson, Michael Prodger and Pippa Bailey

The author of Bronze Age Mindset has galvanised US conservatives – but his adolescent philosophy will soon be forgotten.

By John Gray

Also featuring Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang and Stay True by Hua Hsu.

By Michael Prodger, Christiana Bishop, Barney Horner and Ellen Peirson-Hagger

A study of postwar British politics overstates the influence of its leading personalities.

By Freddie Hayward

The songs he wrote with Elton John may be works of art. His bloated memoir is not.

By Jude Rogers

Her prose is bare, her characters are depressed and alienated. This literary trend has coagulated into parody.

By Charlotte Stroud