De Who?
Chris Petit on John Baxter's biography of a secretive star, Robert De Niro
Harvard bars Oxford poet
Protests erupt over Paulin's anti-Israel views.
How the old man bridged the sea
Hemingway deal erodes US embargo on Cuba.
Love at first sight for my California dream
Have you ever been on holiday and not wanted to come back? Acclaimed author Isabel Allende describes how she abandoned Latin America for good when she fell for a dream (and a man).
He was a poet, but this biographer doesn’t know it
Bevis Hillier buries John Betjeman's life in a mass of incidental detail, says Charles Saumarez-Smith
The origin of The Origin of Species
Janet Browne carves out a unique place in the history of science for Charles Darwin in the second volume of her magisterial biography of the great naturalist
Tale of terror in Brighton scoops French prize
French writer's story based on memories of cruelty and torment in seaside asylum.
Kingdom of the wicked
Blake Morrison is appalled by Roger Lewis's 20-year quest to destroy Anthony Burgess
How not to get a PhD ..
Discover how to avoid failure in this extract from Estelle M. Phillips' and Derek S. Pugh's How to get a Phd
You wouldn’t eat that if you knew where it came from
In Vegetarianism: A History by Colin Spencer, Ellen Ruppel Shell is disappointed to discover nothing but flatulence and self-righteousness from the author.
A woman’s eye view of the world
In Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future. Etelka Lehoczky discovers how the book's editor, Sunita Mehta, has collected writings by a variety of women to provide an antidote to Western arrogance. Similarly,The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran, translated from the Chinese by Esther Tyldesley, combines vigorous universalism with a bone-deep cultural authority. However, The Vatican's Women: Female Influence at the Holy See by Paul Hofmann, reinforces the most fatuous of Catholic stereotypes and stands as a reminder to feminists that Western culture and female empowerment do not go hand in hand
This contest was won four centuries ago
Shakespeare is the greatest Briton. He invented our national identity.
Forever changes
From Ovid to Nabokov, Marina Warner examines metamorphosis in Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds
Literary prize winner boggles France’s best minds
The winner of France's most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt, would normally expect to sell some 500,000 copies and become a household name overnight. Pascal Quignard, critics say, will be lucky to shift a tenth as many.