Philip Roth

The Slovenian philosophy professor decries the tyranny of choice and says we now expect long life, a beautiful body, sexual and job satisfaction. But the idea that we can perfect ourselves dooms us to failure and misery

The foreign affairs commentator explains why US presidents have less room to manoeuvre on foreign policy than they think, and why President Obama had to set aside his “minimalist” inclinations.

Religion has an ability to create groups and communities that has yet to be surpassed, argues Selina O’Grady, author of And Man Created God: A History of the World at the Time of Jesus.

Modern society has interpreted John Stuart Mill’s concept of tolerance to mean that we should avoid giving offence. The director of the Institute of Ideas tells us about books that show how far we’ve departed from what was meant

The author tells us about books that have anxiety at their heart, ranging from obsessional love and chronic neurosis to conspiracy theory paranoia and existential angst

The bestselling author tells us how his other job as a political journalist helps with thriller writing, and what makes le Carré, Forsyth and Buchan such masters of their trade

Can one encounter the whole universe in the streets of one city? Kushanava Choudhury, author of a new book about Calcutta, says so, and tells us how

Without the cultivation of the life of the mind, you will never understand anything about your own life or the world that we live in, says cultural critic Rob Riemen. To get you started for the new year, he recommends the best humanist books (that he read) published in 2017.    

John Rhodes, immunologist and author of The End of Plagues and How to Make a Vaccine, selects five of the best books to help the layperson understand the human immune system in all its fiendish complexity—and explains why the discovery of a successful vaccine is only the initial breakthrough in the long and logistically challenging battle for disease eradication.