contents
march 2020 • issue 484
Editor Nancy Sladek Deputy Editor Tom Fleming Assistant Editors Frank Brinkley • David Gelber Contributing Editors Jonathan Beckman Michael Burleigh • Sara Wheeler • Philip Womack Editorial & Marketing Assistant Michael Delgado Marketing Manager Constance Watson Advertising Manager Terry Finnegan Classified Advertising David Sturge Founding Editor Dr Anne Smith Cover Illustration Chris Riddell
The Literary Review, incorporating Quarto, is published monthly from: 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW • ISSN 0144 4360 Tel: 020 7437 9392 • editorial@literaryreview.co.uk letters@literaryreview.co.uk 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 subscriptions@warnersgroup.co.uk All advertising enquiries to: Terry Finnegan, Literary Review, 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW • Tel: 020 7437 9392 terry@literaryreview.co.uk • david.sturge@btopenworld.com Printed in the United Kingdom by: Henry Ling Ltd, at the Dorset Press, 90 Prince of Wales Road, Dorchester DT1 1PR • Tel: 01305 251 066 Distributed to newsagents worldwide by: Seymour Distribution Ltd • Tel: 020 7429 4000 Distributed to bookshops by: Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN • Tel: 020 8986 4854 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.
Literary Review | march 2020 2
diary 1 A D Miller
burning issues 6 Howard Davies
Capital and Ideology Thomas Piketty 7 Henr ietta L Moore
Hunger: The Oldest Problem Martín Caparrós 8 Kier an Pender
Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, & the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth Rachel Maddow 10 Joan S mith
Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family & a Planet in Crisis Beata Ernman, Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg & Svante Thunberg
art 12 Peter Conrad
Warhol: A Life as Art Blake Gopnik 14 Robin S imon
Piranesi Drawings: Visions of Antiquity Sarah Vowles
politics & power 16 Christopher Coker
The Human Factor: Gorbachev, Reagan, & Thatcher, & the end of the Cold War Archie Brown 17 Cather ine Haddon
The Good State: On the Principles of Democracy A C Grayling 18 James Blitz
Unspeakab le: The Autobiography John Bercow 19 David Gilmour
A P eople Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence & Social Division in Modern Spain 1874–2018 Paul Preston 20 P iers Brendon
Do Morals Matter? Presidents & Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump Joseph S Nye Jr
literary life 22 D J Taylor
A Bite of the Apple: A Life with Books, Writers & Virago Lennie Goodings 23 David Gelber
Inside the Cr itics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times Phillipa K Chong
