America’s brutal borstals
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead reviewed
How Calouste Gulbenkian became the richest man in the world
Mr Five Per Cent: The Many Lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, the World’s Richest Man by Jonathan Conlin reviewed
Hermann the Good German: the mystic life of Hermann Hesse
Hesse: The Wanderer and His Shadow by Gunnar Decker reviewed
Anthony Powell gets the superb new biography he deserves
Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time by Hilary Spurling reviewed
The personality test that conned the world
What’s Your Type? The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing reviewed
The short step from good manners to lofty imperialism
In a world increasingly shaped by encounters with other cultures, the English started to form theories in which their own evolved behaviour resembled the pinnacle of possible civilisation.
1968 and the summer of our discontent
’68 will do as shorthand. Most of ’68, as it were, didn’t happen in 1968. It was, at most, the…
