c o n t e n t s de c ember 2 0 1 4 / j a n ua r y 2 0 1 5 • i s s u e 4 2 7

Editor Nancy Sladek Deputy Editor Tom Fleming Editor-at-Large Jeremy Lewis Senior Editor Jonathan Beckman Chief Editorial Assistant Frank Brinkley Editorial Assistants David Gelber • Tom Williams Contributing Editors Michael Burleigh Sara Wheeler • Philip Womack Advertising Manager Terry Finnegan Classified Advertising David Sturge Founding Father Auberon Waugh Cover Illustration Chris Riddell

The Literary Review, incorporating Quarto, is published monthly from: 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW • Tel: 020 7437 9392 Fax: 020 7734 1844 • ISSN 0144 4360 © All subscription enquiries and changes of address to: Literary Review Subscriptions, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH • Tel: +44 (0) 1778 395 165 All advertising enquiries to: Terry Finnegan, Literary Review, 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW • Tel: 020 7437 9392 Printed in the United Kingdom by: Henry Ling Ltd, at the Dorset Press, Dorchester DT1 1HD • Tel: 01305 251 066 Distributed to newsagents worldwide by: COMAG Specialist, Tavistock Works, Tavistock Rd, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 7QX • Tel: 01895 433 800 Distributed to bookshops by: Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN • Tel: 020 8986 4854 Subscriptions: subscriptions@warnersgroup.co.uk Editorial: editorial@literaryreview.co.uk www.literaryreview.co.uk • @lit_review Designed by Cog Design Literary Review is set in Adobe Caslon and Janet. The latter is a digitisation of an engraved typeface designed by the artist and typographer Reynolds Stone, and named after his wife.

p u l p i t 1 Alex Preston f or e i g n pa rts 8 James Barr

Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East Gerard Russell 9 O leg Gordievsky

Ukraine Crisis: What It Means for the West Andrew Wilson 10 Ben Hutc hinson

Germany: Memories of a Nation Neil MacGregor l i t e r a r y l i v e s 11 Jonathan Sumption

The Poet’s Tale: Chaucer & the Year that Made the Canterbury Tales Paul Strohm 12 James W omack

Mayakovsky: A Biography Bengt Jangfeldt 14 Matthe w Sperling

Poets and the Peacock Dinner Lucy McDiarmid 15 Benedict N ightingale

Eugene O’Neill: A Life in Four Acts Robert M Dowling h i st or y 17 Norman Stone

Wilhelm II: Into the Abyss of War & Exile 1900–1941 John Röhl 19 Helen Castor

England , Arise: The People, the King and the Great Revolt of 1381 Juliet Barker 20 L eslie Mitchell

Mr & Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance Daisy Hay 21 P eter Marshall

Cunegonde’s Kidnapping: A Story of Religious Conflict in the Age of Enlightenment Benjamin J Kaplan 23 Jer ry Brotton

The Visitor: André Palmeiro and the Jesuits in Asia Liam Matthew Brockey 24 Blair W orden

Between Two Worlds: How the English Became Americans Malcolm Gaskill b i o g r a p hy & memoir 26 David Pryce-Jones

Havel: A Life Michael Zantovsky 27 C hristopher Andrew

Stalin’s Agent: The Life & Death of Alexander Orlov Boris Volodarsky

Literary Review | d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 / j a n u a r y 2 0 1 5 2