Reviews

Perhaps the Baltic states, those around the sea there, in recent decades have not been given as full attention as they ought to have. International politics have now changed everything. The core arguments by Oliver Moody are, first, that these states have been forced to develop the kind of resilienc

The vaults of the Antwerp Diamond Centre were thought to be impregnable until, on 15 February 2003, a gang of professional thieves made off with a haul of diamonds worth over £100 million — none have ever been recovered. Patient planning and stunning ingenuity allowed the gang to loot hu

Scottish lawyer Douglas Ross KC reviews the latest instalment in Philippe Sands KC's "loose trilogy". Philippe Sands KC is a leading public international lawyer who has moved beyond the realm of practitioner/academic by writing a series of books based on themes of international law and justice aimed

This substantial work is a study of the intellectuals who migrated to Britain during the 1930s from countries in Central and Eastern Europe that were overrun by fascism. It was thought that between 1933 and 1940 about 100,000 such refugees arrived in Britain, although many merely passed through

Alastair Tibbs reviews Netflix's new documentary on the Grenfell Tower fire. In the early hours of 14 June 2017, the London sky was ignited. What started as a spark from a faulty fridge soon became the blaze that claimed the lives of 72 men, women and children. It was, however, a perfect storm of ne

Robert Shiels reviews a new book linking industrial pollution to a cluster of serial killers.

Graham Ogilvy reviews a new book exploring the political backdrop to the rise of the Impressionists. Sebastian Smee’s Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism was published last year to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the first exhibition by 30 artists who rebelled agai

A new book casts new light on the fight against Big Asbestos, writes Tom Marshall. The history of the harms caused by asbestos is a long and painful one. Since the start of the large-scale commercial exploitation of the mineral in the 19th century, evidence of its damaging effects has been noted and

Robert Shiels reviews a new book on the less popular of the two things said to be certain in life. Death scholarship is well-established. Dr Molly Conisbee, a visiting fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath, has studied many aspects of death and mourning.

It is a curious fact, strange but true, that the best books on Spain are written by foreigners. It is impossible to think of Andalucía without Irish writer Gerald Brenan springing to mind. The lives and careers of the poet Lorca and film-maker Buñuel are likewise synonymous with anothe

Graham Ogilvy reviews a new book on Dorothy Parker's time in Hollywood. Dorothy Parker was celebrated in her time as a poet, a critic and a writer. Above all, she is cherished today for her acerbic wit. But she is less well-known for her Hollywood screenwriting career which spanned three tumultuous

Robert Shiels reviews an apt book for dark times.

Robert Shiels reviews a new book on one of the most notorious crimes in recent English history. The public must surely wish to have a comprehensive narrative of the course of conduct by a medically qualified person resulting in the deaths of many babies, and they have it with this book.

Robert Shiels looks at the "story of law’s reasonable person" — one that has "many beginnings and no end", according to Professor Valentin Jeutner, of Lund University, Sweden. Identifying the concept of a "reasonable person" is not an easy task, given, as this professor discovered, there

Robert Shiels reviews a new book on an infamous series of London murders. The purportedly whole story of the grim events at 10 Rillington Place, London has been offered to the public in different forms over the years but what version is complete, and separately, an accurate one?