Dram dream

Giles Foden knocks back the malt with Michael Jackson's guide to the spirit of life, Malt Whisky Companion

Inga-Stina Ewbank

Inga-Stina Ewbank: Distinguished Shakespeare scholar and linguist with a passion for Scandinavian drama that led to translations of Ibsen and Strindberg.

Fosco Maraini

Italian explorer and travel writer who brought his understanding of the east to the west.

The power of words

Does being a teacher of English give you power over your foreign pupils? Elizabeth Cripps reports on research into the politics of language.

The man behind The Magus

Eileen Warburton's biography of John Fowles and his own journals reveal the personal dramas from which his best work has been made, says John Mullan

Hellé-raiser

Miranda Seymour revels in The Bugatti Queen, the tale of a shameless former stripper who won the world's first Grand Prix for women

Only an Irish clown

Josh Lacey appreciates Ian Pindar's James Joyce, a pragmatic guide to the great writer's works

Head and tail

Mark Cocker assesses two views of Captain Cook in Peter Aughton's Resolution and Nicholas Thomas's Discoveries

Unconventional communication

Edward Greenfield enjoys a contrast of styles in Kevin Bazzana's biography of Glenn Gould, Wondrous Strange, and Susan Tomes's meditation on the art of the piano, Beyond the Notes

The new Jerusalem

Today, Britain's cities go to the polls to elect their councils. But the modern municipal authority is a pale shadow of its former self. In this exclusive extract from his new book on the Victorian city, Building Jerusalem, Tristram Hunt tells the story of the 20th century collapse of council power