The @litreview.bsky.social has once again invited me to be obtrusively northern in its hallowed pages.

Congratulations to M John Harrison on winning this year’s #BookerPrize You can read our review, paywall-free, at the link below: literaryreview.co.uk/close-encoun...

Olivia Ho - Close Encounters

Olivia Ho: Close Encounters - The End of Everything by M John Harrison

literaryreview.co.uk

For decades, Lee Krasner was cast as the victim of a patriarchy, while Jackson Pollock was flattened into a painterly cowboy in an American art that denied its European debts. @chasd2.bsky.social considers what changes when the two are seen as a pair. literaryreview.co.uk/dripping-wit...

Charles Darwent - Dripping with Talent

Charles Darwent: Dripping with Talent - Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous by David Breslin & Brinda Kumar

literaryreview.co.uk

📝It's publication week for my new book Take Note, so it's time to learn about Cassian, patron saint of stenographers, jabbed to death by his stylus-wielding students. Read more in my piece for @litreview.bsky.social literaryreview.co.uk/note-to-self #TakeNoteBook

I reviewed Arthur Downing's 'Power to the People' in the new @litreview.bsky.social - a provocative account of where Britain's energy system came from (and where it could go)

Zoe Guttenplan@zoeguttenplan.bsky.social · 2w ago

The striking November issue of @litreview.bsky.social is now online, with @andrewseaton.bsky.social on British energy, @kayagenc.bsky.social on Gertrude Stein, @tomcook24.bsky.social on the Linotype machine, @andrewtghill.ft.com on shorthand and so much more: literaryreview.co.uk

My review of Frans de Waal's final book, Minds I've Met, is up at @litreview.bsky.social: "de Waal argues for a visionary shift within ethology regarding the burden of proof for animals’ interior lives." #animals #primates #animalbehavior #ethology #anthropology #books #Booksky #bookreview

Barbara J King - Talk to the Animals

Barbara J King: Talk to the Animals - Minds I’ve Met: From Denying to Embracing the Inner Lives of Animals by Frans de Waal

literaryreview.co.uk

Nigel Andrew in @litreview.bsky.social wrote a lovely review of Sniff: a 'fascinating book, written in short, lively chapters packed with facts and insights'. Particularly delighted he approved of 'Lilac Vagina' as a chapter title. literaryreview.co.uk/scents-sensi...

Nigel Andrew - Scents & Sensibility

Nigel Andrew: Scents & Sensibility - Sniff: A History of Smells by William Tullett

literaryreview.co.uk

Out now! Literary Review's November issue, featuring @djtaylorwriter.bsky.social on Saki Joanna Kavenna on Camus and Casares @chasd2.bsky.social on Krasner and Pollock Michele Pridmore-Brown on having children @bjking.bsky.social on animals' inner lives and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books

In the Current Issue: D J Taylor on Saki * Joanna Kavenna on Camus’s love letters * Charles Darwent on Krasner and Pollock * Michele Pridmore-Brown on having children * Barbara J King on animals’ inne...

literaryreview.co.uk

Twenty-six men were raised by Napoleon to the rank of marshal of France; only six fought with him at Waterloo. Jonathan Boff asks whether the marshals’ eventual betrayal was really disloyalty, or simply self-preservation learned at Napoleon's own school. literaryreview.co.uk/winner-takes...

Jonathan Boff - Winner Takes It All

Jonathan Boff: Winner Takes It All - Napoleon and his Marshals: Victory, Rivalry, Betrayal by Andrew Roberts

literaryreview.co.uk

Delighted to see that @sarannmcd.bsky.social’s Justice for Jehanne has been reviewed in @litreview.bsky.social. Read it here: buff.ly/wHEWO7j

Bettina Bildhauer - Sex & Lies in Dijon

Bettina Bildhauer: Sex & Lies in Dijon - Justice for Jehanne: The Tale of a Medieval Survivor by Sara McDougall

buff.ly

Small, useless and endlessly loved, lap dogs have stood for frivolous femininity and the witch’s familiar hidden in her lap. Diane Purkiss wonders what our relationships to these animals say about us. literaryreview.co.uk/fur-from-rea...

Diane Purkiss - Fur from Reasonable

Diane Purkiss: Fur from Reasonable - Yap!: A Short History of Small Dogs by Stephanie Howard-Smith

literaryreview.co.uk

Roy Cohn prosecuted the Rosenbergs, served as Joseph McCarthy’s chief attaché and later counting Donald Trump, mafia dons and Studio 54 regulars among legal clients. @joshglancy.bsky.social considers what, if anything, Cohn actually believed in. literaryreview.co.uk/give-me-the-...

Josh Glancy - Give Me the Judge

Josh Glancy: Give Me the Judge - American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn’s Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump by Kai Bird with Susan Goldmark

literaryreview.co.uk

William Paget, born a sergeant’s son, rose to become Henry VIII’s indispensable secretary. Peter Marshall asks how far a career built on faithfully smoothing a tyrant’s path can really be called admirable. literaryreview.co.uk/catchpole-to...

Peter Marshall - Catchpole to the King

Peter Marshall: Catchpole to the King - King’s Secretary: William Paget and the Last Years of the Reign of Henry VIII by Andrew Johnston

literaryreview.co.uk

Including also my review of ‘Napoleon and his Marshals’ by Andrew Roberts

Literary Review@litreview.bsky.social · last mo.

Out now! Literary Review's October 2026 issue, featuring Nicholas Dames on the novel @jfb1066.bsky.social on Napoleon’s marshals John Adamson on the Glorious Revolution @eriklinstrum.bsky.social on confiscation @janetanderson.bsky.social on small dogs and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

“In the Scholar’s Workshop is an essential contribution to the history of knowledge, to be read and used for decades to come," says @litreview.bsky.social. See what else they have to say of Ann Blair's latest book here (£): buff.ly/NRdUCj4

Dmitri Levitin - Peak Dictation

Dmitri Levitin: Peak Dictation - In the Scholar’s Workshop: Hidden Histories of Collaboration and Authorship by Ann Blair

buff.ly

'A splendid work of history, doing a huge amount within its modest 320 pages’ A brilliant @litreview.bsky.social review for @apettegree.bsky.social's new book #TheBookshop, perfect for history buffs and bibliophiles alike! 📚

Joseph Hone - Balancing the Books

Joseph Hone: Balancing the Books - The Bookshop: A History of Bookselling from the Dawn of Print to the 21st Century by Andrew Pettegree

literaryreview.co.uk

I spent my holiday this summer rereading @emilymandel.bsky.social and had a great time doing it. Here’s me on her latest for @litreview.bsky.social literaryreview.co.uk/worlds-apart-2

Out now! Literary Review's October 2026 issue, featuring Nicholas Dames on the novel @jfb1066.bsky.social on Napoleon’s marshals John Adamson on the Glorious Revolution @eriklinstrum.bsky.social on confiscation @janetanderson.bsky.social on small dogs and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

James Marriott believes that we are living through the ‘Disenlightenment’, where reading has been swapped out for reel-watching. Is it really that bleak? @anthonygottlieb.bsky.social weighs in. literaryreview.co.uk/zombie-ipoca...

Anthony Gottlieb - Zombie iPocalypse

Anthony Gottlieb: Zombie iPocalypse - The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society by James Marriott

literaryreview.co.uk

I love this card catalogue so much. Here's a short piece I wrote for @litreview.bsky.social about it (and my great-grandmother's wartime reading diary) earlier this year literaryreview.co.uk/list-of-a-li...

Cambridge University Library@theul.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In a digital world, our card catalogues remain a much-loved feature of Cambridge University Library. These cabinets contain the records of 20th-century material kept in the tower. Searching under "Best" shows how varied our collections are – from Best Cat Stories to George Best's autobiography!

With over seven hundred novels to her name, Barbara Cartland could count Princess Diana and Colonel Gaddafi among her fans. Wendy Holden makes a case for reconsidering a woman too easily written off as absurd. literaryreview.co.uk/preposterous...

Wendy Holden - Preposterously Pink

Wendy Holden: Preposterously Pink - The Great Dictator: A Life of Barbara Cartland by Matthew Sweet

literaryreview.co.uk

"She was Venus come down from Mount Olympus." Virginia Verasis, Countess of Castiglione, the Victorian beauty who seduced Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte to get France on the side of Italian independence, is the subject of a brilliant new biography by Benedetta Craveri. @litreview.bsky.social.

Jonathan Keates - Fixer from Florence

Jonathan Keates: Fixer from Florence - La Contessa by Benedetta Craveri (Translated from Italian by Alex Andriesse)

literaryreview.co.uk

Out now! Literary Review's September 2026 issue, featuring Kathryn Hughes on Anita Brookner Richard Vinen on Eric Hobsbawm Andrew Preston on Francis Fukuyama Howard Davies on government debt Wendy Holden on Barbara Cartland and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

Cicero's life was bookended by two momentous events: the fall of Roman Republic and the rise of the future Augustus.  Llewelyn Morgan asks what his letters reveal about this turning point in history.  literaryreview.co.uk/letters-from...

Llewelyn Morgan - Letters from a Cataclysm

Llewelyn Morgan: Letters from a Cataclysm - Orator: The Life of Cicero and the End of the Roman Republic by Catharine Edwards

literaryreview.co.uk

A flurry of recent Plath paraphernalia has come to a head with a new edition of her collected poems. Seamus Perry rejoices at the manifold, mutable woman who emerges to challenge Ted Hughes’s 1981 edition. literaryreview.co.uk/a-bulbous-moon

Seamus Perry - A Bulbous Moon

Seamus Perry: A Bulbous Moon - The Poems of Sylvia Plath by Amanda Golden & Karen V Kukil (eds)

literaryreview.co.uk

Scared of spiders? In her fascinating new book, Arachnomania, Maria Tatar explains why spiders have haunted our stories, fears, and imaginations for centuries. Read Lorraine Daston's review in @litreview.bsky.social: literaryreview.co.uk/web-of-intri...

Lorraine Daston - Web of Intrigue

Lorraine Daston: Web of Intrigue - Arachnomania: Spiders and the Cultural Work They Do for Us by Maria Tatar

literaryreview.co.uk

I wrote about Rachel Cusk’s new novel for the August issue of @litreview.bsky.social literaryreview.co.uk/lights-camer...

“Daniel A. Bell has produced a highly original, thoughtful and often witty account of why these thinkers still matter.” Read Rana Mitter's review of Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters in @litreview.bsky.social: literaryreview.co.uk/precedents-o...

Rana Mitter - Precedents of China

Rana Mitter: Precedents of China - Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters: Four Dialogues on China’s Past, Present, and Future by Daniel A Bell

literaryreview.co.uk

Bowled over by @jfb1066.bsky.social's review of COLLAPSE in this month's @litreview.bsky.social! ‘Original and thought-provoking … Collapse represents an ambitious and scholarly achievement ... it sets a new standard for writing the history of warfare’. A good day! literaryreview.co.uk/peoples-war

Jonathan Boff - People’s War

Jonathan Boff: People’s War - Collapse: A Global History of the Second World War, 1931–1941 by Jonathan Fennell

literaryreview.co.uk

Out now! Literary Review's August 2026 issue, featuring Emma Smith on New World imports Ian Thomson on Mario Vargas Llosa Seamus Perry on Sylvia Plath Hamish de Bretton-Gordon on biological warfare Simon Garfield on pens and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk