Owen Matthews on the triumph of the Kremlin propaganda machine

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/russia-ian-garner-jade-mcglynn-alexandar-mihailovic-alexander-etkind-book-review-owen-matthews/

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This week, an exhibition of the Italian Renaissance painter Lavinia Fontana's work thrills Norma Clarke; and Kieran Setiya on Sarah Bakewell's bravura survey of the history of humanism.

'Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, rule breaker', at the National Gallery of Ireland until August 27, with accompanying book by Aoife Brady, Babette Bohn and Jonquil O'Reilly

'Humanly Possible: Seven hundred years of humanist freethinking, enquiry and hope' by Sarah Bakewell

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Peter Thonemann on a civilization that questions its first principles.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/the-west-naoise-mac-sweeney-book-review-peter-thonemann/

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This week, Lucy and Alex head to Hay, and find guest stars Eleanor Catton and Sarah Raven.

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Edward Chancellor considers why central bankers have lost the plot with inflation.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/we-need-to-talk-about-inflation-stephen-d-king-book-review-edward-chancellor/

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This week, Norma Clarke unpicks the complicated business of family legacy in Polly Toynbee’s memoir; and Nicholas Clee immerses himself in Paul Murray’s multi-generational saga of Irish small-town life.

'An Uneasy Inheritance: My Family and Other Radicals’ by Polly Toynbee

’The Bee Sting’ by Paul Murray

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Joe Moran explores the weird world of fandom.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/fans-michael-bond-book-review-joe-moran/

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This week, TLS contributors on what art and literature mean in a time of crisis; and we take a trip to the melancholy, beautiful, faded English seaside.

‘The Seaside: England’s Love Affair’, by Madeleine Bunting

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week, Kate Simpson introduces us to the precarious and vital world of the gastropods; and James McConnachie plunges into the teeming waters of the St George’s Channel.

‘A World in a Shell: Snail Stories for a Time of Extinctions’ by Thom van Dooren

’The Turning Tide: A Biography of the Irish Sea’ by Jon Gower

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Abigail Green considers a panoramic account of the continent-wide outbreak of revolutions in 1848.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/revolutionary-spring-christopher-clark-book-review-abigail-green/ 

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This week, Ben Hutchinson takes us to Paris to survey the invention of type; and Joe Moran on giving your creativity a workout.

‘Imprimer! L’Europe de Gutenberg’, Bibliothèque nationale de France, until July 16

'Imprimer! L’Europe de Gutenberg 1450-1520’, edited by Nathalie Coilly and Caroline Vrand

‘The Imagination Muscle: Where good ideas come from (and how to have more of them)’, by Albert Read

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Tyler Cowen on the advantages of gradual reform over long-term thinking.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/the-long-view-richard-fisher-the-lost-future-jan-zielonka-gradual-greg-berman-aubrey-fox-book-review-tyler-cowen/ 

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This week, Lucy and Alex discover how James Shapiro created his landmark work on a formative year in Shakespeare’s life; and Miranda France on her spellbinding study of memoir and creative writing.

‘1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare’, by James Shapiro

‘The Writing School’, by Miranda France

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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David Throsby on the ruthlessness of the consulting industry.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/consulting-mckinsey-mariana-mazzucato-rosie-collington-walt-bogdanich-michael-forsythe-book-review-david-throsby/

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This week, Laurie Maguire is in the audience for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet; and Lucy and Alex catch up with novelist Curtis Sittenfeld on her whistle-stop visit to the UK.

‘Hamnet’, an RSC production, from the novel by Maggie O’Farrell

‘Romantic Comedy’, by Curtis Sittenfeld

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Tristram Hunt revisits the monuments controversy. 

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/monumental-lies-robert-bevan-everyday-like-of-memorials-andrew-shanken-on-the-street-edwin-heathcote-book-review-tristram-hunt/

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Historian Emily Baughan on two books chronicling the immense impact of the NHS and the welfare state on the lives of Britons; and a new film explores Patricia Highsmith’s hinterland.

’The Welfare State generation: Women, agency and class in Britain since 1945’, by Eve Worth

‘Poster, protests and prescriptions: Cultural histories of the National Health Service in Britain’, edited by Jennifer Crane and Jane Hand

‘Loving Highsmith’, a film by Eva Vitija

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Nicola Shulman on two anthologies that display the obituarist’s art.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/lives-less-ordinary-nigel-farndale-eccentric-lives-andrew-brown-book-review-nicola-shulman/

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Boyd Tonkin visits Complicité’s audacious adaptation of Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead; and Barnaby Phillips on two Victorian explorers at daggers drawn

'Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’, staged by Complicité, based on the novel by Olga Tokarczuk

‘River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile’ by Candice Millard 

Producer: Lucy Dichmont

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Searching for the Good Life

Skye Clery on how to cope with the fear of death and other anxieties

 https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/life-is-short-dean-rickles-life-is-hard-kieran-setiya-book-review-skye-cleary/

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