CONTENTS
THIS MONTH’S PULPIT is written by Simon Singh, author of Fermat’s Last Theorem, Big Bang and The Code Book. He is also the co-author (with Professor Edzard Ernst) of Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial, which indirectly led to him being sued for libel.
LAWRENCE JAMES is author of The Golden Warrior: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia (Abacus) and is currently writing a book on Winston Churchill and the British Empire.
DIARMAID MACCULLOCH is Fellow of St Cross College and Professor of the History of the Church, Oxford University. His l a test book i s A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (Allen Lane).
RAYMOND SEITZ was US Ambassador to the Court of St James from 1991 to 1994.
DIANA ATHILL is the author of Stet and Yesterday Morning: A Very English Childhood and, most recently, Somewhere Towards the End, which won the Costa Book Award for biography in 2008.
JUREK MARTIN is a Financial Times columnist in Washington and was twice its bureau chief there.
LESLIE MITCHELL is Emeritus Fellow of University College, Oxford. His publications include a study of the Whig Party entitled The Whig World.
DAVID PROFUMO’s family memoir Bringing the House Down is published in paperback by John Murray.
DONALD RAYFIELD i s Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London, and author of Stalin and his Hangmen (Penguin, 2005).
MICHAEL BURLEIGH’s Blood & Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism is available in paperback from HarperPerennial.
PULPIT
BIOGRAPHY
HISTORY
LITERARY LIVES
MIND & BODY
FOREIGN PARTS
1
SIMON SINGH
4
6
7
9
10 11
DIARMAID MACCULLOCH Newman’s Unquiet Grave: The Reluctant Saint John Cornwell DONALD RAYFIELD Pavel Florensky: A Quiet Genius – The Tragic and Extraordinary Life of Russia’s Unknown Da Vinci Avril Pyman LESLIE MITCHELL Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero Abigail Green JONATHAN BECKMAN A King’s Ransom: The Life of Charles Théveneau de Morande, Blackmailer, Scandalmonger & Master-Spy Simon Burrows PAUL JOHNSON Philip de László: His Life and Art Duff Hart-Davis JUREK MARTIN The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama David Remnick
13
15
16
18
20
LAWRENCE JAMES The Berlin–Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany’s Bid for World Power, 1898–1918 Sean McMeekin BRIAN MACARTHUR The Burma Campaign: Disaster into Triumph, 1942–45 Frank McLynn RAYMOND SEITZ The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Big Horn Nathaniel Philbrick PAUL CARTLEDGE Lords of the Sea: The Triumph and Tragedy of Ancient Athens John R Hale RICHARD DAVENPORT-HINES History and the Enlightenment Hugh Trevor-Roper
21 22
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DEREK MAHON Letters of Louis MacNeice (Ed) Jonathan Allison JOHN SUTHERLAND E M Forster: A New Life Wendy Moffat Concerning E M Forster Frank Kermode RICHARD GRAY Wolf: The Lives of Jack London James L Haley
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27
MICHAEL BYWATER How Pleasure Works: The New Science of How We Like What We Like Paul Bloom DAVID PROFUMO What’s Eating You? People and Parasites Eugene H Kaplan
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30
31
JOHN KEAY Curfewed Night: A Frontline Memoir of Life, Love and War in Kashmir Basharat Peer CATHERINE MERRIDALE Engineers of the Soul: In the Footsteps of Stalin’s Writers Frank Westerman PATRICK WILLIAMS The Escorial: Art and Power in the Renaissance Henry Kamen
LITERARY REVIEW June 2010
Editor: NANCY SLADEK Deputy Editor: TOM FLEMING Editor-at-Large: JEREMY LEWIS Assistant Editor: JONATHAN BECKMAN Editorial Assistant: ALEXANDER BLASDEL Contributing Editors: MICHAEL BURLEIGH,
SARA WHEELER, PHILIP WOMACK Advertising Manager: TERRY FINNEGAN
Founding Editor: DR ANNE SMITH Founding Father: AUBERON WAUGH
Cover illustration by Chris Riddell
Issue no. 377
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