Pictures of a revolution
Liz Jobey on Motion Studies, Rebecca Solnit's attempt to put Eadweard Muybridge at the centre of 19th century perception of time and space
The new dark age
Ben Okri: The looting and burning of Iraq's museums and libraries has left us all losers
Pretty boy lost
Kathryn Hughes finds Ann Wroe's account of a royal pretender, Perkin: A Story of Deception, just too clever
Their man in Africa
DJ Taylor on Telegram from Guernica, Nicholas Rankin's biography of a correspondent who found himself in all the right places
Cookson’s library reign expected to end soon
Catherine Cookson's reign from beyond the grave as queen of British fiction for five years after her death is due to end within the next two or three years, public lending right figures show.
Archie Turnbull
Publisher whose scholarly press helped launch the Scottish renaissance.
Rock art clue to nomad ancestors of Egyptian pyramid builders
A new book is to reveal that the pyramid builders who made their first entry in the archaelogical record 5,000 years ago were once stone-age nomadic cattle herders
Face off
Linda Grant on Lindy Woodhead's fascinating biography of two doyennes of the cosmetic industry, War Paint
Herbert Aptheker
American Marxist historian who challenged racist writings and led the way on the study of the anti-slavery struggle.
Maggie: a guide for aliens
The time has not yet arrived for a retrospective analysis of the Thatcher years, as Brenda Maddox's biography, Maggie, shows
How Not to be a Hypocrite: chapter nine, the futility of individual choice?
The day before beginning this chapter I talked to a woman with little sympathy for those who opt out. When I said that I thought a parent opposed to private schools might be justified in sending her kid to one, she scoffed: 'That won't help solve the problem, will it?' I replied that sending him to the local comprehensive probably wouldn't help much either. The thought that individual sacrifices are futile has been lurking in the background for a while. It's time to put it under the spotlight. Is it true that the decisions of individual parents make no difference? How does the answer affect the issue of hypocrisy? If it is true, does that justify opting out?