Reviews

Review

Hurvin Anderson’s luminous palette

After decades of accomplished painting, a retrospective provides overdue recognition of Hurvin Anderson's place among Britain’s greatest living artists.

Duncan Wheeler July 10, 2026

Review

Lessons from the Cold War’s disinformation front

Britain's Cold War propagandists fought Moscow with lies and forgeries. The adversaries and the technology have changed; the same threats remain.

Gill Bennett July 8, 2026

Review

The woman who invented George Sand

Fiona Sampson reclaims one of the 19th century's most influential French novelists 150 years after her death.

Katherine Pangonis July 8, 2026

Review

The afterlife of the Soviet spy

The spy fiction written by Soviet intelligence officers was far more than propaganda.

Martin D. Brown July 7, 2026

Review

The unlikely triumph of Napoleon III

The French emperor was a highly skilled politician whose audacity and breadth of imagination allowed him to perceive trends of great historical significance.

Jack Dickens July 3, 2026

Review

Slavery before race

In the early modern period, thinking about slavery had little interest in racial categories.

David Wootton July 2, 2026

Review

George Forster’s dazzlingly humane vision

The German naturalist rejected the racial classifications of his age, and his capacity for forgiveness was almost inhuman. Andrea Wulf lets the reader bask in his sensitive apprehe..

Mathew Lyons July 1, 2026

Review

The restless eye of James McNeill Whistler

A man in constant motion, Whistler was a painter, printmaker and provocateur who spent a lifetime reinventing both himself and his art.

Alexandra Wilson June 30, 2026

Review

Brexit and the roads not taken

On the 10th anniversary of the referendum, three recent histories explore Britain's fraught relationship with the EU.

Sean McGlynn June 23, 2026