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contents october 2021 • issue 501 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 | october 2021 2 diary 1 Philip Hensher state of the nation 6 Richard Vinen Black Gold: The History of How Coal Made Britain Jeremy Paxman • The Shadow of the Mine: Coal & the End of Industrial Britain Huw Beynon & Ray Hudson 8 James Blitz My Secret Brexit Diary: A Glorious Illusion Michel Barnier 9 Anoosh Chakelian Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour’s Lost England Sebastian Payne biography & diaries 11 Richard Davenport-Hines Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries – 1938–43 Simon Heffer (ed) 12 Miranda Seymour Miss Dior: A Story of Courage & Couture Justine Picardie 14 John Gribbin The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann Ananyo Bhattacharya 15 Martin Vander Weyer The Contrarian: Peter Thiel & Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power Max Chafkin foreign parts 16 Owen Bennett-Jones Kashmir at the Crossroads: Inside a 21st-Century Conflict Sumantra Bose 17 Noonie Minogue A Thing of Beauty: Travels in Mythical & Modern Greece Peter Fiennes 18 Tim Summers The Gate to China: A New History of the People’s Republic & Hong Kong Michael Sheridan crown & sceptre 20 Tim Blanning George III: The Life & Reign of Britain’s Most Misunderstood Monarch Andrew Roberts 22 Jane Ridley The Secret Royals: Spying & the Crown, from Victoria to Diana Richard J Aldrich & Rory Cormac 23 Anna Groundwater Elizabeth Stuart: Queen of Hearts Nadine Akkerman

contents art 25 William Whyte William Morris Anna Mason (ed) 26 James Hall The Italian Renaissance Altarpiece: Between Icon & Narrative David Ekserdjian philosophy 28 Steven Nadler Spinoza’s Religion: A New Reading of the Ethics Clare Carlisle literary lives 30 Dennis Duncan Speaking East: The Strange & Enchanted Life of Isidore Isou Andrew Hussey 31 Ben Hutchinson Speak, Silence: In Search of W G Sebald Carole Angier 32 Roberta Klimt Making Darkness Light: The Lives & Times of John Milton Joe Moshenska history 34 Dmitri Levitin The Italian Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern Humanities: An Intellectual History, 1400–1800 Christopher S Celenza 35 Lucy Wooding Devil-Land: England Under Siege, 1588-1688 Clare Jackson 37 Rebecca Earle Fugitive Freedom: The Improbable Lives of Two Impostors in Late Colonial Mexico William B Taylor general 39 Frances Wilson The Heroine with 1,001 Faces Maria Tatar 40 Jonathan Sumption Whatever Happened to Tradition? History, Belonging & the Future of the West Tim Stanley 41 James Stourton Noble Ambitions: The Fall & Rise of the Post-War Country House Adrian Tinniswood 43 Linda Porter Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts & Their Makers Mary Wellesley fiction 44 Keith Miller Crossroads Jonathan Franzen 45 Leo Robson Beautiful World, Where Are You Sally Rooney 47 Frank Lawton Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth Wole Soyinka 48 Sheena Joughin Oh William! Elizabeth Strout 49 Anthony Cummins A Passage North Anuk Arudpragasam 50 Paul Abbott The Morning Star Karl Ove Knausgaard 51 N J Stallard Burntcoat Sarah Hall 52 Houman Barekat A Calling for Charlie Barnes Joshua Ferris 53 Ian Critchley Making Nice Ferdinand Mount 54 Kevin Power Harlem Shuffle Colson Whitehead notebook 55 Alan Taylor Westward Ho! fiction in brief 56 Are We Having Fun Yet? Lucy Mangan • Wildlord Philip Womack • After the Sun Jonas Eika crime 58 Natasha Cooper silenced voices 60 Lucy Popescu Meral Simşek & Yavuz Ekinci bookends 64 Matthew Rubery The coming of the podiobook competition 46 Fergus Butler-Gallie sets a monthly challenge 59 LR Bookshop 38 Letters 24 Crossword october 2021 | Literary Review 3

Page Text

contents art 25 William Whyte

William Morris Anna Mason (ed) 26 James Hall

The Italian Renaissance Altarpiece: Between Icon & Narrative David Ekserdjian philosophy 28 Steven Nadler

Spinoza’s Religion: A New Reading of the Ethics Clare Carlisle literary lives 30 Dennis Duncan

Speaking East: The Strange & Enchanted Life of Isidore Isou Andrew Hussey 31 Ben Hutchinson

Speak, Silence: In Search of W G Sebald Carole Angier 32 Roberta Klimt

Making Darkness Light: The Lives & Times of John Milton Joe Moshenska history 34 Dmitri Levitin

The Italian Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern Humanities: An Intellectual History, 1400–1800 Christopher S Celenza 35 Lucy Wooding

Devil-Land: England Under Siege, 1588-1688 Clare Jackson 37 Rebecca Earle

Fugitive Freedom: The Improbable Lives of Two Impostors in Late Colonial Mexico William B Taylor general 39 Frances Wilson

The Heroine with 1,001 Faces Maria Tatar 40 Jonathan Sumption

Whatever Happened to Tradition? History, Belonging & the Future of the West Tim Stanley 41 James Stourton

Noble Ambitions: The Fall & Rise of the Post-War Country House Adrian Tinniswood 43 Linda Porter

Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts & Their Makers Mary Wellesley fiction 44 Keith Miller

Crossroads Jonathan Franzen 45 Leo Robson

Beautiful World, Where Are You Sally Rooney 47 Frank Lawton

Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth Wole Soyinka 48 Sheena Joughin

Oh William! Elizabeth Strout 49 Anthony Cummins

A Passage North Anuk Arudpragasam 50 Paul Abbott

The Morning Star Karl Ove Knausgaard 51 N J Stallard

Burntcoat Sarah Hall 52 Houman Barekat

A Calling for Charlie Barnes Joshua Ferris 53 Ian Critchley

Making Nice Ferdinand Mount 54 Kevin Power

Harlem Shuffle Colson Whitehead notebook 55 Alan Taylor Westward Ho!

fiction in brief 56 Are We Having Fun Yet? Lucy Mangan • Wildlord Philip

Womack • After the Sun Jonas Eika crime 58 Natasha Cooper silenced voices 60 Lucy Popescu Meral Simşek & Yavuz Ekinci bookends 64 Matthew Rubery The coming of the podiobook competition 46 Fergus Butler-Gallie sets a monthly challenge

59 LR Bookshop 38 Letters 24 Crossword october 2021 | Literary Review 3

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