The ObserverHistory booksReviewA fascinating history of the fruitless attempts by British high society to civilise, rather than appease, the Third Reich
When Hitler rose to power in the early 1930s, public reaction in Britain was not that of unalloyed horror. Instead, it lay somewhere between disinterest, snobbish, if inaccurate, contempt (“the man’s a house painter!”), and, in some circles, quiet satisfaction that a vigorous reformer had shaken up his country in an apparently effective and forward-looking fashion. Read More...
Fiction in translationReviewThe passing of youth is vividly drawn in this epic tale of a Swedish publisher whose wife mysteriously goes missing
Martin Berg is a Swedish publisher living in the aftermath of tragedy. More than a decade ago, his wife, a writer and academic named Cecilia, vanished one morning, leaving behind Martin and their two young children, Rakel and Elis. In her outstanding debut novel, Collected Works, translated into propulsive English by Agnes Broomé, Lydia Sandgren tells Martin’s story across two narrative timelines. Read More...
Industry: episode by episodeDramaIt’s nail-biting stuff this week, with Harper ‘touching the face of God’ and happier than we’ve ever seen her. But then there are the guns on that disastrous hunting trip …
Spoiler alert: this recap is published after episode three of Industry season two airs on BBC One in the UK. Do not read on if you haven’t watched it.
This week’s Industry finds us in “Richard Burton country”, in the time-honoured TV drama tradition of taking your antagonists, checking them into a Welsh country house and giving them guns. Read More...