David Hare’s latest volume, We Travelled: Essays and Poems (Faber £14.99; The Week Bookshop £11.99), a collection of his prose and poetry, is published this week.
Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum (2020)
If you’ve read the British press during the pandemic, you will know that once creditable and witty rightwing journalists are now shills for a liar. Applebaum’s book asks why conservatives in the West have so willingly embraced deceit, corruption and authoritarianism. She has answers, too. Penguin £9.99; The Week Bookshop £7.99
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Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt (1963)
The definitive account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Isaiah Berlin was once asked to define overrated. He bitched, “Hannah Arendt”. Asked the same, I’d say “Isaiah Berlin”. Penguin £10.99; The Week Bookshop £8.99
A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 by Victoria Wilson (2013)
The history of Hollywood told through the life of one superb working actress. Its 1,056 pages leave our heroine in 1940, aged 33. It’s one of the greatest books about cinema, but where is Volume Two? With Simon Callow’s long-awaited fourth volume on Orson Welles, it’s the great white whale of film publishing. Simon & Schuster £14.99
Faith Healer by Brian Friel (1979)
Friel’s landmark play. A healer has a gift, and he has no idea where it comes from – or why it departs. Sensational and unsurpassed. Faber £9.99; The Week Bookshop £7.99
The Beautiful Fall by Alicia Drake (2006)
About the rivalry and shared loves of a genius, Yves Saint Laurent, and a jealous showman, Karl Lagerfeld. Lagerfeld is Salieri to Saint Laurent’s Mozart. I’ve read it three times, and the dark, destructive world of Paris fashion goes on deepening. Bloomsbury £16.99; The Week Bookshop £13.99
The Hand (La Main) by Georges Simenon (1968)
This is the novel adapted into a stage play, The Red Barn, memorably directed by Robert Icke, and starring Mark Strong. But I might have chosen any of Simenon’s romans durs. Bleak, swift, brutal and unwavering. Penguin £8.99; The Week Bookshop £6.99
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Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
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American Psycho: a ‘hypnotic’ adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classicThe Week Recommends Rupert Goold’s musical has ‘demonic razzle dazzle’ in spades
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Political cartoons for February 6Cartoons Friday’s political cartoons include Washington Post layoffs, no surprises, and more
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Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibition
The Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
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American Psycho: a ‘hypnotic’ adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classic
The Week Recommends Rupert Goold’s musical has ‘demonic razzle dazzle’ in spades
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Properties of the week: houses near spectacular coastal walksThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, Devon and Northumberland
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Melania: an ‘ice-cold’ documentaryTalking Point The film has played to largely empty cinemas, but it does have one fan
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Nouvelle Vague: ‘a film of great passion’The Week Recommends Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave
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Wonder Man: a ‘rare morsel of actual substance’ in the Marvel UniverseThe Week Recommends A Marvel series that hasn’t much to do with superheroes
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Is This Thing On? – Bradley Cooper’s ‘likeable and spirited’ romcomThe Week Recommends ‘Refreshingly informal’ film based on the life of British comedian John Bishop
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A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between the Wars – history at its most ‘human’The Week Recommends Alwyn Turner’s ‘witty and wide-ranging’ account of the interwar years
