Reviews

Review

How to save imperial history

Two popular histories of the British empire combine compelling storytelling with scholarly judgment, showing how historians can handle morally complex subjects with flair, nuance a..

Samuel Rubinstein June 9, 2025

Review

Cecil Beaton’s gardens of Eden

A new exhibition foregrounds the enduring role of flowers in the life of the photographer Cecil Beaton, and how they cross-pollinated their way into his creative imagination.

Saffron Swire June 2, 2025

Review

Poetry for the common reader

The American poet Dana Gioia writes for the public, a vanishingly rare trait.

Jaspreet Singh Boparai May 29, 2025

Review

A little history of privacy

The idea of privacy is a surprisingly modern notion, but one worth defending.

Katherine Harvey May 28, 2025

Review

The times and tides of the wild River Thames

A fascinating exhibition at the London Museum Docklands shows vividly how the River Thames has always been a wild place at the heart of urban civilisation. Its tides are constantly..

Mathew Lyons May 27, 2025

Review

A new world of discovery

The Age of Discovery was a time of disasters – and surprises.

Caroline Eden May 20, 2025

Review

Countryside writing’s rebirth

In the writing of Patrick Galbraith, country life has won the observer and interpreter it needs.

Richard Smyth May 19, 2025

Review

The art of Siena: a question of perspective

The National Gallery's Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300 ‒1350 captures key developments, in elegantly curated snapshots, of the early textures of Western Europe’s artistic vitalit..

Alastair Benn May 16, 2025

Review

What Mary Shelley did in the shadows

Bath was, for Mary Shelley, a sanctuary and a retreat from the world, a place of refinement and confinement, where she wrestled with, and channelled, her private sorrows.

Malcolm Forbes May 14, 2025