CONTENTS

THIS MONTH’S PULPIT is written by Gillian Tindall. Her Footprints in Pa r i s was publi s hed i n 2009 by Chatto & Windus. The F i e l d s Beneath is being reissued by Eland Press next month.

ADRIAN TINNISWOOD’s latest book, Pirates of Barbary, is published in paperback by Vintage in March.

CHRISTOPHER ANDREW is Professor o f Modern and Contemporary History at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and t he au t hor o f Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (Allen Lane).

DEREK MAHON’s New Col l e c t e d Poems is due in April.

SARA WHEELER’s Access All Areas: Selected Writings 1990–2010 is published by Jonathan Cape in March.

TIM BLANNING is a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. His most recent book is The Romantic Revolution.

DAVID STAFFORD’s next book, Mission Accomplished: SOE and Italy, 1943–45, is published in March.

MICHAEL JACOBS’s most recent book is Andes (Granta).

ROGER KIMBALL is co-editor of The New Criterion.

JOHN CORNWELL is Director of the Science and Human Dimension Project at Jesus College, Cambridge.

STANLEY MITCHELL’s translation of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin is published by Penguin Classics.

DONALD RAYFIELD is Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary, University of London, and author of Stalin and his Hangmen (Penguin).

PULPIT

HISTORY

LITERARY LIVES

FOREIGN PARTS

VITAL ORGANS

DRAGONS’ DEN

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GILLIAN TINDALL

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TIM BLANNING Bismarck: A Life Jonathan Steinberg PIERS BRENDON Liberty’s Exiles: The Loss of America and the Remaking of the British Empire Maya Jasanoff DAVID STAFFORD The Emperor’s Codes: Bletchley Park’s Role in Breaking Japan’s Secret Ciphers Michael Smith CHRISTOPHER ANDREW The Dead Hand: Reagan, Gorbachev and the Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race David E Hoffman MICHAEL JACOBS The Anatomy of a Moment Javier Cercas FELIPE FERNANDEZ-ARMESTO Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire Nicholas Thomas

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DEREK MAHON Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life Lev Loseff ADRIAN TINNISWOOD Reprobates: The Cavaliers of the English Civil War John Stubbs ROGER KIMBALL Believe in People: The Essential Karel Capek (Ed) Sárka Tobrmanová-Kühnová PAMELA NORRIS Katherine Mansfield: The Story-Teller Kathleen Jones STANLEY MITCHELL Mirror of the Soul: A Life of the Poet Fyodor Tyutchev John Dewey

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JASON BURKE The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Faultline between Christianity and Islam Eliza Griswold SUDHIR HAZAREESINGH The Wind f r om t h e East: French Intellectuals, the Cultural Revolution, and the Legacy of the 1960s Richard Wolin DONALD RAYFIELD I am a Chechen! German Sadulaev MICK BROWN To a Mountain in Tibet Colin Thubron SARA WHEELER Bird Cloud Annie Proulx

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JOHN CORNWELL The Tell-Tale Brain: Unlocking the Mystery of Human Nature V S Ramachandran JAMES LE FANU Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers Ralph H Blum & Mark Scholz

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JOHN KEAY The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832–1914 Robert Bickers TIMOTHY BROOK A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552–1610 R Po-chia Hsia Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East Mary Laven Matteo Ricci, un jésuite à la cour des Ming Michela Fontana Lettres à Matteo Ricci An Huo

LITERARY REVIEW February 2011

Editor: NANCY SLADEK Deputy Editor: TOM FLEMING Editor-at-Large: JEREMY LEWIS Assistant Editor: JONATHAN BECKMAN Editorial Assistant: ALEXANDER BLASDEL Contributing Editors: MICHAEL BURLEIGH,

SARA WHEELER, 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. 384

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