compassion
The boundless curiosity of Oliver Sacks
The neurologist’s diverse interests – from colour blindness to cephalopods – are strikingly evident in letters to family, friends and patients, as well as his unfailing courtesy and compassion
Heartbreaking scenes: Annihilation, by Michel Houellebecq, reviewed
Set in 2027, with France in a state of economic and moral decay, Houellebecq’s deeply affecting novel is really a meditation on love and death and the way we treat the dying
Simon Schama’s migration muddle
Sooner or later, in this trade, one runs out of television historians to antagonise. I am doggedly working my way…
For the term of our unnatural lives
‘To die of age is a rare, singular and extra-ordinary death’, wrote Montaigne, ‘and so much less natural than others:…
The British clan
The Scots and the English have far more in common than the SNP likes to admit
