Making tradition
James Fenton on the creation of canons
Fighting talk
This month, The Birthday Party returns to the same theatre where it opened exactly 50 years ago. Slated by the critics, it nearly ended Harold Pinter's career. So how did it go on to become such a classic, asks Michael Billington
Toughs at the top
Roy Hattersley is diverted by Ferdinand Mount's Cold Cream, the memoirs of a Tory grandee
Market failures
On reading Jeffrey D Sachs' Common Wealth, James Buchan finds it hard to be optimistic about the financial costs of global warming
Three’s a crowd
Blake Morrison is entranced by Julia Blackburn's The Three of Us, an extraordinary tale of family and forgiveness
Angry young men
Courttia Newland hails a hard-boiled tale of inner-city gangs, Alex Wheatle's The Dirty South
The marvel of comics
On reading Mark Evanier's Kirby, Michel Faber pays tribute to the man who drew the Fantastic Four
Don’t mess with Michiko Kakutani
Jonathan Franzen claims she's the stupidest person in New York. But she sure knows how to stick the knife in
My family and other luminaries
Ferdinand Mount's sublime autobiography Cold Cream has a cast of hundreds, each of whom defined their age, says Elizabeth Day
Memory albums
Simon Garfield's The Error World is a memoir of obsession and philately, says Killian Fox
Forget Boris – Ken is his own worst enemy
Andrew Hosken's scrupulous account of Ken Livingstone's political life reveals a troubled figure, says Martin Bright
Natural wonders
Giuseppe Arcimboldo's heads composed of fruit, flowers, birds and books are not just a gimmick, Jonathan Jones argues. They have a demonic life of their own, weaving together the art, science and occult of Renaissance Europe
The Shoreditch years
Commentary: Charles Nicholl wonders what might lie hidden under the rediscovered 'Shakespeare's church'
In short: I am afraid
Simon Gray's The Last Cigarette is a magnificent dramatic monologue, says Richard Eyre
Them, us and me
Sathnam Sanghera's If You Don't Know Me by Now tells of a Sikh journalist's voyage of self-discovery, says Meg Rosoff