Cold Warriors by Duncan White review – when novels were weapons
This account of the cultural dimension of capitalism v communism offers a reminder that literature can unsettle the powerful
October 2019
Daphne Hardy’s Koestler translation stands up
Letters: Koestler would have checked every word Daphne wrote, says Paul Henrion, her son. The book mattered to him more than anything else he ever wrote
September 2019
After 80 years, Darkness at Noon's original text is finally translated
Arthur Koestler’s classic story of Stalinist purges has hitherto been known through an incomplete translation by his girlfriend – until a student found the original in an archive
July 2018
Left Bank by Agnès Poirier – existentialism, jazz and the miracle of Paris in the 1940s
A gushing love letter to the French capital features De Beauvoir, Sartre, Samuel Beckett and wave after and wave of oversexed, overpaid Americans
May 2018
'Stubbornly fighting for life': how Arthur Koestler reported the birth of Israel
Seventy years ago, Israel declared independence, and the Manchester Guardian sent the leftwing intellectual to cover the nascent state. But was he an altogether accurate witness?
December 2017
Top 10s
Top 10 books about the unconscious
From BF Skinner’s behaviourism to Milan Kundera’s existential comedy, these are some boldly counterintuitive guides to the part of ourselves we know least
September 2016
Top 10s
John Sweeney's top 10 books on corruption
From Macbeth to Robert Maxwell and Mussolini’s son-in-law, the investigative reporter and crime novelist picks his favourite books featuring ‘plot No 2 in literature’
March 2016
Books blog
A turn-up for the books – when lost manuscripts are rediscovered
This week the New York Review of Books’ blog revealed that a literary manuscript assumed to be among those lost for ever has reappeared, but what of the others?
February 2014
The Act of Killing: don't give an Oscar to this snuff movie
Nick Fraser
Nick Fraser: The Act of Killing has won over critics but this tasteless film teaches us nothing and merely indulges the unrepentant butchers of Indonesia
March 2013
British Writers and MI5 Surveillance 1930-1960 by James Smith – review
Sam Leith on how the surveillance of Britain's supposedly communist writers was largely a comedy of errors
May 2011
Why don't we love our intellectuals?
While France celebrates its intelligentsia, you have to go back to Orwell and Huxley to find British intellectuals at the heart of national public debate. Why did we stop caring about ideas? When did 'braininess' become a laughing matter?
April 2010
Koestler: The Indispensable Intellectual by Michael Scammell
Tibor Fischer tackles one of Hungary's most famous exports
February 2010
Critical eye
Critical eye: book reviews roundup
Koestler: The Indispensable Intellectual by Michael Scammell, The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris and Philip Ball's The Music Instinct
Robert McCrum on books
The double life of Arthur Koestler, intellectual and sexual adventurer
Robert McCrum
The double life of Arthur Koestler, intellectual and sexual adventurer, is now laid bare, writes Robert McCrum
The extraordinary Arthur Koestler
William Skidelsky
Arthur Koestler: flawed crusader
Arthur Koestler: the indispensable intellectual
November 2009
Digested classics
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
'The grammatical fiction of personal guilt prompted another toothache, in the course of which Rubashov recalled how he had betrayed his mistress and librarian'
