contents
april 2021 • issue 495
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 Print by: CPUK Print Publishing Ltd, www.cp-uk.co.uk 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 | april 2021 2
diary 1 Paul Theroux
history 5 Munro Price
To Kidnap A Pope: Napoleon & Pius VII Ambrogio A Caiani 6 H Kumarasingham
The Gun, the Ship and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions & the Making of the Modern World Linda Colley 8 Linda Porter
The Red Prince: The Life of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster Helen Carr 9 Timothy Brook
The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World Marie Favereau 10 Richard Overy
Stalin’s War Sean McMeekin
movers & shakers 12 Howard Davies
Value(s): Building a Better World for All Mark Carney 13 Steve Richards
The Impossible Office? The History of the British Prime Minister Anthony Seldon, with Jonathan Meakin & Illias Thoms 14 Ian Fraser
When the Fund Stops: The Untold Story behind the Downfall of Neil Woodford, Britain’s Most Successful Fund Manager David Ricketts • Built on a Lie: The Rise & Fall of Neil Woodford & the Fate of Middle England’s Money Owen Walker 16 Robert Colls
Snakes & Ladders: The Great British Social Mobility Myth Selina Todd
music 18 Mathew Lyons
The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth Michael Spitzer • The Life of Music: New Adventures in the Western Classical Tradition Nicholas Kenyon 20 Jonathan Keates
Lev’s Violin: An Italian Adventure Helena Attlee
