GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
The upside of regicide
GAVIN O’TOOLE relishes an account of the ideological creativity that was sparked by the abolition of the monarchy in England
STUFFY AUTHORITARIANS: Charles I by Anthony Van Dyck, 1635; Charles III, 2019
[Mark Tantrum/CC; The Royal Collection/CC]
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis
PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.
RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger
ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs
JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England
Jonathan Healey, Bloomsbury, £30
WHAT better way to mark the coronation of Charles III than to recall the execution of his predecessor, Charles I, as the crowning moment of a revolution?
The dethronement of Charles in 1649 ushered in an unprecedented experiment in republicanism amid extraordinary ideological ferment the like of which England has not experienced since.
Given the forthcoming accession of his namesake, it is tempting to make comparisons between the 17th-century monarch and that of today.
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GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes, and recommends a a candid, evidence-based record of Britain’s role in the slaughter visited by Israel upon the Palestinians
STEPHEN ARNELL wonders at the family resemblance between former prince Andrew and his great-uncle ‘Dickie’
‘Honest’ Tom Wharton’s 1682 drunken rampage through St Mary’s church haunted his political career, but his satirical song Lillibullero helped topple Catholic James II during the Glorious Revolution, writes MAT COWARD
GUILLERMO THOMAS is persuaded by a scathing critique of the Church of England and its embeddedness in imperialism