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Nancy Cunard, rebel lover
Ariane Bankes
An acute journalist and champion of the oppressed, as well as a reveller prone to "drink, cynicism, and unlimited promiscuity" |
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Star man
Robert Douglas Fairhurst
A. E. Housman's letters unite a self-centred child with a self-effacing adult, the commentator on ancient astrology with the author of A Shropshire Lad |
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Ralph Ellison visible
Morris Dickstein
Did Ellison's acceptance in the white world disable him as a writer? |
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Balzac's boiler room
Graham Robb
The mystery of Balzac's genius and productivity as revealed in his letters |
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Ingenious John Evelyn's diary
Ruth Scurr
Gillian Darley's new biography of John Evelyn reveals the paradoxes of public and private in a historian who preferred horticulture |
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The vivid dreams of Alexis de Tocqueville
Ferdinand Mount
Warm, hot-tempered, sentimental – and tiny: Tocqueville was a matchless observer and a political visionary; but a stylish new biography fails to appreciate how startlingly fresh and relevant he still is today. |
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Beatrix Potter's tales of escape
Nicola Shulman
Domineering parents and an oppressive home life allowed Potter to identify with the privations of childhood long after most adults have forgotten what it was like. |
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Spike Milligan's people
Eric Korn
An obsession with their own catastrophes makes the best of clowns the worst of company. Milligan and his friends were no exception. |
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Decca's letters
Caroline Moorehead
"A wee bit of hammer-and-tongsville" from the most rebellious of the Mitford sisters |
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