But during the Great Purge he was arrested and tortured; he confessed to having worked undercover for Russia’s enemies and ...

The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350’ at the National Gallery in London until 22 June is therefore trailblazing, as well as being ...

Once upon a time, an ambitious ruler concerned about a rising power on the other side of the globe decided to place a puppet king on a nearby throne in a country that was beautiful, rich in natural ...

If I say that I used to be very afraid of Enoch Powell, I think a certain proportion of Literary Review readers will guess what I mean. To be a socialist in the 1960s was to know that, even as the ...

How can a business that generates more losses than profits not only survive but thrive? Easily, as long as the losses fall on economic actors outside the company. It wouldn’t be good for the economy ...

In 1904, Henry James decided to return to America. He was feeling isolated at Lamb House in Rye. In a letter to Grace Norton, he wrote: ‘The days depart and pass, laden somehow like processional ...

How many geniuses of the front rank have excelled equally in two creative fields? There’s William Blake, of course, and perhaps Michelangelo qualifies on the grounds of his marvellous sonnets, but no ...

Between 1933 and 1940, about a hundred thousand refugees from central Europe came to Britain to escape the nightmare of fascism. They were mostly from the professional middle class. The majority were ...

A room full of women sleeping in low beds, heavily sedated with drugs and given frequent electric shocks, sounds like something from a Soviet gulag. Such a place could in fact be found near Waterloo ...

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