CONTENTS

THIS MONTH’S PULPIT is written by Richard Davenport-Hines. His most recent books are A Night at the Majestic (2006) and Ettie: The Intimate Life of Lady Desborough (2008).

JOHN GRAY is the author of Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and The Death of Utopia (Allen Lane).

JULIET BARKER is the author of the best-selling Agincourt (Little, Brown, 2005). Joan of Arc features in her forthcoming book, Conquest: The English Kingdom of France 14171450, which will be published by Little, Brown in October.

NORMAN STONE is Professor of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara. His most recent book is World War One: A Short History (Penguin).

MIRANDA SEYMOUR’s most recent book is Chaplin’s Girl: The Life and Love of Virginia Cherrill. She is is currently writing a book about the appeasers.

DAVID STAFFORD is the author of Endgame 1945: Victory, Retribution, Liberation (Abacus, 2008), and is currently writing the official history of the Special Operations Executive in Italy 1943-1945.

PATRICIA FARA’s latest book is Science: A Four Thousand Year History (OUP, 2009). She is Senior Tutor of Clare College, Cambridge.

ROBERT CHESSHYRE is a journalist and author. A former US correspondent and home editor of The Observer, he writes about cricket when he can.

JONATHAN KEATES’s most recent book, The Siege of Venice, is published by Chatto & Windus.

ALAN CANE is a columnist and reviewer for the Financial Times.

PULPIT

BIOGRAPHY

HISTORY

BRIGHT IDEAS

LITERARY LIVES

BEAUTY & THE BEASTS

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RICHARD DAVENPORT-HINES

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JULIET BARKER The Virgin Warrior: The Life and Death of Joan of Arc Larissa Juliet Taylor NORMAN STONE Kaiser Wilhelm II: A Life in Power Christopher Clark FRANK MCLYNN A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir Donald Worster PAUL JOHNSON A Genius for Failure: The Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon Paul O’Keeffe PATRICIA FARA Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Master Criminal, the Great Genius and The Plot to Destroy the Royal Mint Thomas Levenson ROBERT CHESSHYRE Harold Larwood: The Authorized Biography of the World’s Fastest Bowler Duncan Hamilton CHRISTOPHER BRAY Stripping Gypsy: The Life of Gypsy Rose Lee Noralee Frankel Gypsy: The Art of the Tease Rachel Shteir ANDREW LYCETT Biography: A Very Short Introduction Hermione Lee

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LESLIE MITCHELLThe English Rebel: One Thousand Years of Troublemaking, from the Normans to the Nineties David Horspool A Radical History of Britain: Visionaries, Rebels and Revolutionaries – The Men and Women Who Fought for Our Freedoms Edward Vallance SIMON HEFFER 1939: Countdown to War Richard Overy DAVID STAFFORD The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War Andrew Roberts JONATHAN MIRSKY War Without Frontiers: The USA in Vietnam Bernd Greiner

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JOHN GRAY The Idea of Justice Amartya Sen ALLISTER HEATH Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World Stephen Green SIMON MAY Ideas that Matter: A Personal Guide for the 21st Century A C Grayling

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ALEXANDER WAUGH Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead Paula Byrne HUGH BROGAN The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransome Roland Chambers PAUL BINDING Knut Hamsun: Dreamer and Dissenter Ingar Sletten Kolloen

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PATRICK O’CONNOR Debussy’s Mélisande: The Lives of Georgette Leblanc, Mary Garden and Maggie Teyte Gillian Opstad JONATHAN KEATES The Gargoyles of Notre-Dame: Medievalism and the Monsters of Modernity Michael Camille

Editor: NANCY SLADEK Deputy Editor: TOM FLEMING Editor-at-Large: JEREMY LEWIS Assistant Editor: JONATHAN BECKMAN

Contributing Editors: SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE, PHILIP WOMACK

Advertising Manager: TERRY FINNEGAN Classified Advertising: DAVID STURGE

Founding Editor: DR ANNE SMITH Founding Father: AUBERON WAUGH

Cover illustration by Chris Riddell

Issue no. 368

LITERARY REVIEW August 2009

2 AUGUST 2009

FICTION I

FOREIGN PARTS

BELLES LETTRES

GENERAL

FICTION II

SILENCED VOICES CRIME POETRY COMPETITION LR CLASSIFIEDS

3 3 34 35 36

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38

40

41

42

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44 45 46

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51 52 53 54 54 55 56 57 58

59 60 62 64

ELAINE SHOWALTER Too Much Happiness Alice Munro ROBERT SCGORDON The Complete Cosmicomics Italo Calvino TOBY LICHTIG The Escape Adam Thirlwell CRESSIDA CONNOLLY Love and Summer William Trevor

JASON BURKE Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Iran Dilip Hiro TIMOTHY BROOK When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World Martin Jacques DONALD RAYFIELD Lost and Found in Russia: Encounters in a Deep Heartland Susan Richards

PETER WASHINGTON On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction Brian Boyd HUGH CECILThe Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun J R R Tolkien

ALEX RENTON Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal Tristram Stuart WM ROGER LOUIS Reporting the World Keith Kyle JOHN CLAY Bedlam: London and its Mad Catharine Arnold MIRANDA SEYMOUR The Atmosphere of Heaven: The Unnatural Experiments of Dr Beddoes and His Sons of Genius Mike Jay THEODORE DALRYMPLE Doctoring the Mind: Why Psychiatric Treatments Fail Richard Bentall ALAN CANE The Nature of Tehnology: What It Is and How It Evolves W Brian Arthur CHARLES ELLIOTT The Lotus Quest: In Search of the Sacred Flower Mark Griffiths

HENRY POWER Inherent Vice Thomas Pynchon SAM LEITH The Anthologist Nicholson Baker STEPHEN AMIDON Peace Richard Bausch WILLIAM PALMER Surviving Allan Massie EDMUND GORDON Occupied City David Peace TIM MARTIN The Maintenance of Headway Magnus Mills MIRANDA FRANCE What Becomes A L Kennedy GILL HORNBY Family Album Penelope Lively FRANCIS KING My Driver Maggie Gee

LUCY POPESCU JESSICA MANN

LR CROSSWORD 63 LR BOOKSHOP 1 2

ALEXANDER WAUGH is working on a scholarly edition of his grandfather’s letters and is eager to make contact with anyone who knows the whereabouts of any unpublished Evelyn Waugh correspondence.

ELAINE SHOWALTER is Professor Emerita of English at Princeton University. Her latest book is A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx.

JASON BURKE is a foreign correspondent for The Observer. His latest book is On the Road to Kandahar: Travels through Conflict in the Muslim World.

LESLIE MITCHELL is Emeritus Fellow of University College, Oxford. His most recent publications include a life of Bulwer-Lytton and a study of the Whig Party entitled The Whig World.

ALLISTER HEATH is Editor of City AM.

TIMOTHY BROOK teaches Chinese history at Oxford and the University of British Columbia. He is most recently the author of Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World and a coauthor of Death by a Thousand Cuts.

WM ROGER LOUIS’s most recent book is Ends of British Imperialism.

ANDREW LYCETT is the author of Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, published by Phoenix.

ALEX RENTON writes on food policy and food culture for The Times, Prospect and The Observer.

PETER WASHINGTON was Editor of the Everyman Library from 1989 to 2009.

HUGH BROGAN is Research Professor of History at the University of Essex, and the author of The Life of Arthur Ransome (1984).

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LITERARY REVIEW August 2009