Literary Review

Anna Reid - Mission Impossible Anna Reid: Mission Impossible - Mavericks: Empire, Oil, Revolution and the Forgotten Battle of World War One by Nick Higham

In the summer of 1918, the Caspian port of Baku played host to a remarkable group of Allied soldiers, sent to defend oil wells against the Ottomans.

Anna Reid recounts their escapades.

literaryreview.co.uk/mission-impo...

I reviewed Lynda Nead's BRITISH BLONDE: WOMEN, DESIRE AND THE IMAGE IN POST-WAR BRITAIN for the latest issue of Literary Review @litreview.bsky.social Lovely stuff in four chapters, each about a different British Blonde; can you guess who they are? (One is easy!) literaryreview.co.uk/peroxide-pat...

Out now! Literary Review's October 2025 issue, featuring

John Adamson on the origins of news
Ritchie Robertson on Goethe
Stephen Smith on Basquiat
Anna Reid on oil and the First World War
Robert Hazell on constitutional monarchy

and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books In the Current Issue: Will Tosh on Christopher Marlowe * John Banville on Christopher Clarke * Claire Harman on Muriel Spark * Seamus Perry on Tennyson * Lucy Hughes-Hallett on the stiff upper lip * L...

Out now! Literary Review's September 2025 issue, featuring

@willtosh.bsky.social on Christopher Marlowe
@claireharman.bsky.social on Muriel Spark
Seamus Perry on Tennyson
Lucy Hughes-Hallett on the stiff upper lip
Patrick Wilcken on Easter Island

and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

Edward Short - In Search of Samuel Clemens Edward Short: In Search of Samuel Clemens - Mark Twain by Ron Chernow

19th-century America runs through the life and work of Mark Twain, who was a typesetter, a gold rush prospector, a Confederate soldier and more.

Edward Short investigates where Samuel Clemens ends, and Twain begins.

literaryreview.co.uk/in-search-of...

David Leeder - One-Track Minds David Leeder: One-Track Minds - Off the Rails: The Inside Story of HS2 by Sally Gimson

Like many trains in this country, HS2 has been blighted by delays and rocketing costs.

David Leeder asks who is to blame for the project's failures.

literaryreview.co.uk/one-track-mi...

Bijan Omrani - Colosseum Confidential Bijan Omrani: Colosseum Confidential - Those Who Are About to Die: Gladiators and the Roman Mind by Harry Sidebottom

Students of Ancient Rome have long wondered, why would you enjoy watching a man being hacked to death in front of you?

@bijanomrani.bsky.social digs for an answer.

literaryreview.co.uk/colosseum-co...

Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books In the Current Issue: Edward Short on Mark Twain * Mark Ford on James Schuyler * Angela Tilby on St Augustine * Dmitri Levitin on Einstein * Howard Davies on Trump's tariffs * Peter Marshall on James ...

Out now! Literary Review's August 2025 issue, featuring

Edward Short on Mark Twain
Angela Tilby on St Augustine
Mark Ford on James Schuyler
Dmitri Levitin on Albert Einstein
Howard Davies on Trump's tariffs

and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

Alexander Lee - Man of Glass Alexander Lee: Man of Glass - Boccaccio: A Biography by Marco Santagata (Translated from Italian by Emlyn Eisenach)

Giovanni Boccaccio’s life was one of change and reinvention, ranging from banking to studying canon law, and culminating in his eventual exile from Naples.

Alexander Lee explores how these experiences can be found in the poet’s restless work.

literaryreview.co.uk/man-of-glass

Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books In the Current Issue: Will Wiles on Purism * Dennis Duncan on ephemera * Alexander Lee on Boccaccio * Allan Massie on Horace * D J Taylor on Lawrence Durrell * Paul Morland on why we need more people ...

In the July issue of Literary Review:

@willwiles.bsky.social
on the Frenchman who brought modernism to London

Giles Fraser
on Hitler and the vicar

Also: Rhodes on trial, Boccaccio in love, Plato gets political - and much, much more.

Out now!

literaryreview.co.uk

Zoe Guttenplan - To the Postbox Zoe Guttenplan: To the Postbox - The Uncollected Letters of Virginia Woolf by Stephen Barkway & Stuart N Clarke (edd)

Virginia Woolf is the subject of thousands of books, articles and dissertations. Is there anything new to say about her life and work?

Possibly. @zoeguttenplan.bsky.social considers nearly 1,500 previously uncollected letters.

literaryreview.co.uk/to-the-postbox

Kate Loveman - Publishing Pepys Kate Loveman: Publishing Pepys

It wasn’t until 1825 that Samuel Pepys’s diary became available for the first time. How it was eventually decrypted and published is a story of subterfuge and duplicity.

Kate Loveman tells the tale.

literaryreview.co.uk/publishing-p...

Piers Brendon - Land of Dopes & Tories Piers Brendon: Land of Dopes & Tories - The Benson Diaries: Selections from the Diary of Arthur Christopher Benson by Eamon Duffy & Ronald Hyam (edd)

Arthur Christopher Benson was a pillar of the Edwardian establishment. He was supremely well connected. As his newly published diaries reveal, he was also riotously indiscreet.

Piers Brendon compares Benson’s journals to others from the 20th century.

literaryreview.co.uk/land-of-dope...

Tanya Harrod - Cut from the Same Canvas Tanya Harrod: Cut from the Same Canvas - Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John by Judith Mackrell

Of the siblings Gwen and Augustus John, it is Augustus who has commanded most attention from collectors and connoisseurs.

Was he really the finer artist, asks Tanya Harrod, or is it time Gwen emerged from her brother’s shadow?

literaryreview.co.uk/cut-from-the...

Carl Miller - Return of the Mac Carl Miller: Return of the Mac - Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company by Patrick McGee

As Apple has grown, one country above all has proved able to supply the skills and capacity it needs: China.

What compromises has Apple made in its pivot east? Carl Miller investigates.

literaryreview.co.uk/return-of-th...

Richard Davenport-Hines - Scenes from a Literary Life Richard Davenport-Hines: Scenes from a Literary Life - Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris by Edmund White

We are saddened to hear of the death of Edmund White.

We've lifted the paywall on Richard Davenport-Hines's 2014 review of White's Paris memoir.

literaryreview.co.uk/scenes-from-...

Jude Cook - Trouble & Strife Jude Cook: Trouble & Strife - The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine

I reviewed @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social's terrific, polyphonic debut novel, The Benefactors, in the June issue of @litreview.bsky.social literaryreview.co.uk/trouble-strife

Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books In the Current Issue: Piers Brendon on A C Benson * Richard V Reeves on modern masculinity * Zoe Guttenplan on Virginia Woolf * Tanya Harrod on Gwen and Augustus John * Carl Miller on Apple in China *...

Out now! Literary Review's June 2025 issue, featuring

Piers Brendon on A C Benson
Richard V Reeves on the manosphere
@zoeguttenplan.bsky.social on Virginia Woolf
Tanya Harrod on Gwen & Augustus John
Carl Miller on Apple in China

and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

Joseph Hone - Start the Presses! Joseph Hone: Start the Presses! - Johannes Gutenberg: A Biography in Books by Eric Marshall White

Johannes Gutenberg cut corners at every turn when putting together his bible. How, then, did his creation achieve such renown?

@josephhone.bsky.social investigates.

literaryreview.co.uk/start-the-pr...

Sophie Oliver - The Once & Future Genius Sophie Oliver: The Once & Future Genius - Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife by Francesca Wade

Convinced of her own brilliance, Gertrude Stein wished to be ‘as popular as Gilbert and Sullivan’ and laboured tirelessly to ensure that her celebrity would outlive her.

Sophie Oliver examines the real Stein.

literaryreview.co.uk/the-once-fut...

Nicola Shulman - Kind Hearts & Coronets Nicola Shulman: Kind Hearts & Coronets - Dianaworld: An Obsession by Edward White

Princess Diana was adored and scorned, idolised, canonised and chastised.

Why, asks Nicola Shulman, was everyone mad about Diana?

literaryreview.co.uk/kind-hearts-...

Rhodri Lewis - Portrait of the Biographer as a Young Man Rhodri Lewis: Portrait of the Biographer as a Young Man - Ellmann’s Joyce: The Biography of a Masterpiece and Its Maker by Zachary Leader

I reviewed Zachary Leader's new book about Richard Ellmann (and Ellmann's Joyce biography) for The Literary Review (@litreview.bsky.social).
literaryreview.co.uk/portrait-of-...

Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books In the Current Issue: Nicola Shulman on Princess Diana * Sophie Oliver on Gertrude Stein * Costica Bradatan on Pascal * Howard Davies on the dollar * Joseph Hone on Gutenberg * Adam Douglas on rare bo...

Out now! Literary Review's May 2025 issue, featuring

Nicola Shulman on Princess Diana
Sophie Oliver on Gertrude Stein
Costica Bradatan on Pascal
Howard Davies on the dollar's decline
@josephhone.bsky.social on Gutenberg

and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

Peter York - Deluxe Editions Peter York: Deluxe Editions - When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter

Under its longest-serving editor, Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair was that rare thing – a New York society magazine that published serious journalism.

Peter York looks at what Carter got right.

literaryreview.co.uk/deluxe-editi...

Peter Rose - The Restless Analyst Peter Rose: The Restless Analyst - Henry James Comes Home: Rediscovering America in the Gilded Age by Peter Brooks; On Writers and Writing: Selected Essays by Henry James (Edited by Michael Gorra)

Henry James returned to America in 1904 with three objectives: to see his brother William, to deliver a series of lectures on Balzac, and to gather material for a pair of books about modern America.

Peter Rose follows James out west.

literaryreview.co.uk/the-restless...

Piers Brendon - Tinker, Tailor, Sleeper, Troll Piers Brendon: Tinker, Tailor, Sleeper, Troll - The Illegals: Russia’s Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West by Shaun Walker

Vladimir Putin served his political apprenticeship in the KGB toward the end of the Cold War, a period during which Western societies were infiltrated by so-called ‘illegals’.

Piers Brendon investigates how the culture of Soviet spycraft shaped his thinking.

literaryreview.co.uk/tinker-tailo...

Anthony Pagden - Pax Americana Anthony Pagden: Pax Americana - America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin

In both the USA and Latin America, there is a long-standing belief that the countries of the Americas have a common interest and destiny.

Anthony Pagden assesses the prospects for transcontinental collaboration today.

literaryreview.co.uk/pax-americana

Richard Vinen - Dictator in the Dock Richard Vinen: Dictator in the Dock - 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia by Philippe Sands

When Augusto Pinochet arrived in London for medical treatment in 1998, he was surprised to find himself arrested while in hospital.

Richard Vinen examines why Pinochet was eventually released and what the episode reveals about Britain’s legal system.

literaryreview.co.uk/dictator-in-...

Seamus Perry - And Did Those Fins Seamus Perry: And Did Those Fins - William Blake and The Sea Monsters of Love by Philip Hoare

What connections are there between William Blake and whales?

Seamus Perry delves deep for answers.

literaryreview.co.uk/and-did-thos...

Lucy Moore - An American in Paris Lucy Moore: An American in Paris - Fearless and Free: A Memoir by Josephine Baker (Translated from French by Anam Zafar & Sophie Lewis); Josephine Baker’s Secret War: The African American Star Who Fou...

By the end of Josephine Baker’s life, she had become the first black woman to appear in a film, a civil rights leader and a chevalier of the Legion d’honneur.

Lucy Moore explores how Baker became the most celebrated American in Paris.

literaryreview.co.uk/an-american-...