That materialists and ministers struggle to justify morality shows there is still a place for Christianity in intellectual and public life

In philosophical circles, it was once heresy to challenge Darwinian reductionism. That is now changing

Two major biographies of Margaret Thatcher — one vivid and concise, the other magisterial — are essential reading for anyone who cares about the Iron Lady

Ben Judah's rich and thoughtful account of the Putin years charts a Russian political system continually manipulated by a wounded leader

The Taste of Ashes by Marci Shore is a history typical of a modern, intellectual "non-Jewish" Jew, which downplays the impact of the Holocaust

Christian Ingrao's analysis of university-educated SS members is dense but compelling, drawing blurred lines that demarcate good and evil

Two new histories of separate conflicts in Afghanistan show that both the Victorians and a young Churchill struggled at the North-Western Frontier

The Great Reform Bill of 1832 nearly sparked a revolution. Antonia Fraser's history tells the story with tremendous verve

The uruguayan Eduardo Galeano was once the author of elegant and charming journalism. Sadly, his new book is a dumbed-down travesty

Big Brother is Lionel Shriver at her cold-eyed best; a nourishing helping of fearless, humane and sober prose