Going Nuclear by Tim Gregory review – a boosterish case for atomic energy | Science and nature books
There is something biblical about the fraternal relationship between the atomic bomb and the nuclear reactor. Both involve bombarding uranium-235 atoms with neutrons to produce a chain reaction via nuclear fission. Both... Read more »
The title of Al Pacino’s memoir comes from the nickname given to him by his mother when he was growing up. His parents divorced when he was two, after which he and... Read more »
Philip Ignatius Brooke – aristocrat, playboy, countercultural icon, owner of a 1,000-acre estate in the Sussex countryside – is dead. And no one is especially sad. Certainly not his immediate family, who,... Read more »
In her landmark 1985 work, The Body in Pain, American essayist Elaine Scarry makes a case for the “unsharability” of pain and its resistance to language. “Physical pain,” she writes, “does not simply... Read more »
Midden Witch by Fiona Benson (Jonathan Cape, £13)In her fourth collection Benson turns her fierce attention to the individuals hounded as witches. Her language is rich with “a broth of sweat” that... Read more »
Motherhood is a state of continuous loss that is meant to culminate when the dependent baby becomes an independent adult. Joan Didion survived this, as many mothers have, by keeping constant watch... Read more »
Why do Professional Book Reviews Matter? In the age of star ratings and reader comments, you might wonder why professional book reviews are still important. The truth is that crowd-sourced opinions (like... Read more »
In 2021, JD Vance told Fox News that senior Democrat women were just “childless cat ladies”, lacking cultural or social value compared with their married and procreating counterparts. When Taylor Swift looked... Read more »
One muggy afternoon in June 2010, Don Heathfield and his wife, Ann, were relaxing over a bottle of champagne with their two sons, Tim and Alex, when they heard a loud knocking... Read more »