contents
december 2020 / january 2021 • issue 492
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
diary 1 William Boyd
history 6 H Kumarasingham
The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery Michael Taylor 7 Karina Urbach
Nazis & Nobles: The History of a Misalliance Stephan Malinowski 9 Luke Daly-Groves
The Hitler Conspiracies Richard J Evans 10 Geoffrey Roberts
Stalin: Passage to Revolution Ronald Grigor Suny 11 Paul Kennedy
Unlocking the World John Darwin 12 David Anderson
Behind the Enigma John Ferris • How Spies Think David Omand
literary lives 14 Elizabeth Lowry
The Fall of a Sparrow: Vivien Eliot’s Life & Writings Ann Pasternak Slater 16 Seamus Perry
Take Arms Against a Sea of Troubles Harold Bloom 18 Peter Davidson
Alexander Pope in the Making Joseph Hone 19 David Pryce-Jones
Russian Roulette: The Life & Times of Graham Greene Richard Greene 21 Nigel Andrew
Being Betjeman(n) Jonathan Smith
the white house 22 Lawrence Freedman
A Promised Land Barack Obama 23 Tim Stanley
His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life Jonathan Alter • Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976–1980 Rick Perlstein
natural world 26 Joanna Kavenna
Gigantic Cinema: A Weather Anthology Alice Oswald & Paul Keegan (edd) 27 Richard Smyth
Natural: The Seductive Myth of Nature’s Goodness Alan Levinovitz • The Natural Health Service: What the Great Outdoors Can Do for Your Mind Isabel Hardman 28 Henry Gee
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures Merlin Sheldrake 30 Charles Elliott
Planting the World: Joseph Banks & His Collectors – An Adventurous History of Botany Jordan Goodman
the state we’re in 32 Michael Ignatieff
What’s Wrong With Rights? Nigel Biggar 34 Joan Smith
Labours of Love: The Crisis of Care Madeleine Bunting • No Fixed Abode: Life & Death Among the UK’s Forgotten Homeless Maeve McClenaghan 36 Andrew Adonis
The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? Michael J Sandel
end of empire 38 Xan Smiley
A Brutal State of Affairs: The Rise & Fall of Rhodesia Henrik Ellert & Dennis Anderson 40 Richard Vinen
The Blood of the Colony: Wine & the Rise & Fall of French Algeria Owen White 41 Rana Mitter
Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries & the Assault on Empire Tim Harper
Literary Review | december 2020 / january 2021 2
