It has been raining - constantly - for years; in a city that is largely submerged, three sisters contend with a sinister legacy. Tender, spooky, apocalyptic.
A novel (Tatting, 1957) in which a just-married young couple go to Cornwall where the inhabitants are definitely odd, and a group of short stories about the complexities of love and sex (Man... read more
How did Oxford colleges, chapels, pubs, societies, nooks and crannies inspire Lewis and his friends? By the Professor of English Language and Literature at Magdalen. Some illustrations.
VM was the author of The Map of Knowledge, a compelling account of the survival of the ancient classics in the Muslim world, and their re-emergence in the West. Now she turns her attention t... read more
The passage of time and unseen overlaps echo back and forth in the lives of two couples living at different times in one Parisian flat. By the author of Flaneuse: Women Walk the City.
A dazzling critical history of games and game theory, ancient and modern, by a neuroscientist who, alongside stints at MIT, Berkeley and UCL, claims to have 'spent her childhood being repeat... read more
A new edition of this splendid book, in a smaller format and illustrated with a few drawings rather than photographs. Roddy writes wonderfully about Testaccio (where she has lived for over a... read more
Travel memories - some imagined, such as a performance of 'Hamlet' off the African coast, in 1607 - from the amiable author of A Pike in the Basement: Tales of a Hungry Traveller.
The Austrian artist's late-C18th journey to Italy and the Levant resulted in his superb Flora Graeca; at the same time he made exquisite bird paintings, published here for the first time.
The democratic experiment of 1918-1933, from defeat in WW1 to the rise of the Nazis. Jähner's description of living through this chaotic period is almost as thrilling as Hitchcock.
Following Cromwell's death, there were 10 changes of government in 2 years. Reece argues that there was still no great support for a return to the monarchy and yet, despite strong military b... read more