Missions and Misunderstandings
A tale of two translators, caught between civilisations.
Reviews
Absolute Legend
Hunting in the archives for the ‘real’ Robin Hood.
‘I Embrace You With All My Revolutionary Fervor: Letters 1947-1967’ by Che Guevara review
I Embrace You With All My Revolutionary Fervor: Letters 1947-1967 by Che Guevara collects the deft epistolary prose of the self-styled prophet.
Half a Life
The remarkable adolescence of the Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen.
Escape to the Country
An Essex farm built on religious and political ideals in a war-torn world.
‘Traitor King’ by Andrew Lownie review
From gay orgies to Nazi sympathies, Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor by Andrew Lownie picks up the story post-Abdication.
Y Byd Newydd
From Ohio’s farmlands to Pennsylvania’s coalfields: how Welsh is America?
Can’t Go On
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, had aimed to bring new life to a system in which he believed until the last.
Books of the Year 2021
Revolutionary France, lights out in the Ottoman Empire, gross obscenity, Napoleon’s gardens and the humble index: ten historians reflect on a year of reading.
‘Conclave 1559’ by Mary Hollingsworth review
Conclave 1559: Ippolito d’Este and the Papal Election of 1559 by Mary Hollingsworth captures the gruelling voting and the arduous politicking.