The Critic Books

Book reviews from @thecriticmag

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Eman Quotah’s The Night Is Not For You (Wildfire, 2025, £20) has some fine observant writing about growing up in the small town Arab world, reviews Jeremy Black https://t.co/Y37jAFcXfy

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Cynically timed for Christmas, celebrity authors have reimagined the classic PG Wodehouse characters, writes @alexlarman https://t.co/8KH2MGBtVC

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“Much of the book hinges on anecdotes, starting with a genuinely amusing incident at a museum in Dudley” — @jdenicholls reviews The Big Payback, by Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder https://t.co/CT4IKSqmch

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“Tyack’s lucid prose finds a match in Paton’s magnificent photography” — @Waslet reviews Oxford Libraries Architecture, by Geoffrey Tyack and Dan Paton https://t.co/3K3Gh5JS4Y

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The central problem with re-writing stories — even the better ones — is that Wodehouse himself remains inimitable, argues @alexlarman https://t.co/8KH2MGBtVC

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“Intellectual ballast is supplied through conversations with a host of racial activists” — @jdenicholls reviews The Big Payback, by Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder https://t.co/CT4IKSqmch

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Murder in Wintertime (Profile, 2025) follows earlier selections edited by Cecily Gayford and again is a considerable success, reviews Jeremy Black https://t.co/Y37jAFcXfy

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The popularity of Saxton’s maps reflected the desire for consistency and precision, writes Jeremy Black https://t.co/NG1Q0P7TyB

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“The authors want white people to pay black people a flat fee for centuries’ of interaction, some of it good, some of it bad” — @jdenicholls reviews The Big Payback, by Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder https://t.co/CT4IKSqmch

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“Marozzi recalls a professor at Bilkent University in Turkey admonishing a younger historian not to dig too deep: ‘Our ancestors treated their slaves very well; don’t waste your time.’” — @SI_Rubinstein reviews Captives and Companions, by Justin Marozzi https://t.co/oVFE33wdF6

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“This is a classic of the stranded at Christmas genre, in this case due to a train becoming stuck in the snow, and passengers taking refuge. Brilliant.” — Jeremy Black reviews Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon https://t.co/Y37jAFcXfy

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“To say more would spoil, but, in the second and third parts of the book, we discover that Jatgeir is not necessarily the central character” — @john_self reviews Vaim, by Jon Fosse https://t.co/Q9E9DWch8j

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“The British public are hungry to learn about their history” — Conor McKee reviews Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century, by @HelenhCarr https://t.co/ygzvPguBB7

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“Frank Skinner’s story include a bizarre incident in which Bertie and Jeeves have been cryogenically frozen for decades” — @alexlarman reviews Jeeves Again https://t.co/8KH2MGBtVC

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“People have always been hesitant to draw any comparisons between Islamic and Atlantic slavery” — @SI_Rubinstein reviews Captives and Companions, by Justin Marozzi https://t.co/oVFE33wdF6

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“The unique flavour of this book is the way Saisio splits the narrative, switching from an immediate first person to a more distant third, often mid-sentence” — @john_self reviews Lowest Common Denominator, by Pirkko Saisio https://t.co/Q9E9DWch8j

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“Fletcher provides valuable details about government support for the project and its impact on Saxton’s method” — Jeremy Black reviews The Queen’s Atlas. Saxton’s Elizabethan Masterpiece, by David Fletcher https://t.co/NG1Q0P7TyB

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“Ultimately, the book becomes hollowed-out art history, pressing stray biographical details into service as proof of a thesis” — @SalemLola reviews The Foreign Invention of British Art, by Leslie Primo https://t.co/jFC6MBsoUx

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“I was not expecting to have a liberal male mansplain how gestation is a breeze, but here we are” — @beatrixscudeler reviews Sex is a Spectrum by Agustín Fuentes https://t.co/cHgZL9qjzH

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“Knowing the period well, I inevitably spotted some events where recollections may vary” — @matthew_elliott reviews Between The Waves, by Tom McTague https://t.co/rgDmN9YjjE