C20th experimental and idealistic collectives, including Santiniketan in Delhi, England's Dartington, Germany's Bruderhof. Their leaders were charismatics too - Tagore, Gurdjieff, et al - ... read more
Patrick Leigh Fermor held that baroque architecture in Italy could never have existed without pasta in all its multitudinous and beguiling forms... Drawing on a decade and a half of living i... read more
Just 28 when he found Nineveh, Layard later witnessed the Charge of the Light Brigade and reported on the Indian Mutiny: his life was action-packed. This new biog argues that he was deeply r... read more
His mistakes as well as his achievements, and a fascinating post- Brexit look at our history since WW2, in which our leaders still vye for Churchill's mythic mantle to legitimize their polit... read more
A cultural history through seven coloured lenses. Its broad frame of reference encompasses Shakespeare, Goldfinger (first name Auric), Goethe, Roman marbles, Bronze Age gold, Mayan jade... C... read more
From the author of the excellent 'The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are', an account of the dazzling city that was the hub of the known world in the C16th.