Second World War
The Tragic Destiny of Basil Blackwood
Unpublished documents reveal how the brilliant 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava met his end on a wartime mission in Burma
Anarchic Interregnum
Ian Buruma’s Year Zero deftly tells the story of 1945: the year the modern world began
He Died That Others Might Live In Peace
Visiting the Normandy invasion beaches, I realised the importance
of the campaign in which my cousin was killed fighting for freedom
Bernard Hailstone: The Artist And His Sitter
In 1945, Bernard Hailstone painted my father, the journalist Louis Heren, in the Burmese jungle. This is the story of their long friendship
Spurning Old Truths
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
Death’s Heads
Christian Ingrao’s analysis of university-educated SS members is dense but compelling, drawing blurred lines that demarcate good and evil
Battling with Britten
The reputation of one of England’s finest composers has been indelibly stained by his refusal to fight in the Second World War
The Legacy of John Maynard Keynes
Keynesian policy recommendations are now the staple of governments around the world but it is hard to believe Keynes himself would endorse them
Master and Commander
Churchill and Sea Power by Christopher M Bell exonerates the wartime Prime Minister of his alleged military mistakes
The Fate Of A Forgotten Ally
Halik Kochanski’s magisterial work on the cruel and chaotic legacy of World War II in Poland is history at its best
Carrying water for freedom
Hong Kong’s protestors are brave and, so far, successful. The Chinese Communist Party leadership must be kicking itself
Discussions with a stone wall
Britain’s main gay rights organisation is risking its own future by adopting gender self-ID as its new cause
In the heartlands of white-flag academia
When I tried to find out why my pro-Brexit article was turned down I was rebuffed — showing the intellectual conformism of universities