Hoaxing the Nazis
Using fake tanks, movie-set designers, and an all-too-real General Patton, the Allies ingeniously fooled Hitler in the run-up to D-day
The Daumier of La Dolce Vita
Ava Gardner kicked him in the groin, Peter O’Toole socked him in the ear, and this month Gérard Depardieu pounded him to a pulp. But 79-year-old Rino Barillari isn’t slowing down
Murder, They Wrote
This month’s best mystery books, podcasts, and TV series
Along Came Polly
Polly Jean Harvey, the fearless singer and two-time Mercury Prize winner known as PJ Harvey, blends her recent work with 90s classics on her European summer tour
Infinity Times Four
From the Donmar Warehouse in London, Nick Payne’s Constellations
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a beloved historian’s memoir; a look at early American life; and an author’s ode to his cat
All Jazzed Up
How three great jazz musicians—Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington—created their own lexicons
Angelica Hicks’s Guide to Brooklyn
The British illustrator and Internet personality shares her go-to restaurants, shops, and bars near her home in Carroll Gardens
The Way Things Were
Morris Engel’s 1980s telephone-booth photos—published for the first time in AIR MAIL—harken back to a bygone New York City
The Bloomsbury Group’s Dark Horse
A new exhibition in London pays homage to Virginia Woolf’s sister Vanessa Bell, a long-overlooked pioneer of modern art in Britain
What You Don’t Know About Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy
On this week’s podcast, the author of a new biography of J.F.K. Jr.’s wife takes us inside the story
Owen Teague
The young star of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes discusses acting with C.G.I. and making it in Hollywood
The Nanny Diaries
A solo show in New York honors Vivian Maier, the 20th-century nanny and amateur photographer whose richly nuanced work is only now getting its due
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
As Virgin Atlantic celebrates its 40th anniversary, Richard Branson pauses from ruling his empire to reveal a few of his favorite things
Portrait of the Artist as a Monster
A searing new memoir recounts a daughter’s toxic and chaotic relationship with her father, the artist Lucian Freud
Tom Lehrer Doesn’t Want to Talk to You
How did one of the world’s greatest satirists nearly fade into obscurity?
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a look at Impressionist artists’ home lives; a biography of seven Egyptian queens; and a study of the explorer George Mallory
Jonny Johansson’s Guide to Stockholm
The creative director and co-founder of Acne Studios shares his favorite spots in the Swedish capital