Anatomy of an It Girl
How a British woman named Jane became the French bag named Birkin
Gore Vidal at 100
“A narcissist is someone better looking than you are”
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss Geoff Dyer’s memoir of growing up in postwar England, a Pulitzer-winning nature writer’s account of summers in Newfoundland, and a story of a Taoist priest visiting the Mayans
Matisse vs. the Nazis
Despite a teaching post in San Francisco and a visa to Rio de Janeiro, the artist chose to stay in France and pursue his “degenerate” art during W.W. II
Deadly Pleasures to Read and Watch
Two mystery books unfolding on either side of the Atlantic, and a new Maigret TV show set in present-day Paris
Agitrons,Waftaroms, and Neoflects, Oh My!
Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker’s Lexicon of Comicana—a lovingly ironic send-up of comic-strip conventions—remains the gold standard, 50 years on
Passion on the Potomac
A new book hints at an affair between Jackie Kennedy and Robert McNamara spanning J.F.K.’s death, the Vietnam War, and several marriages
On the Basis of Sexuality
The little-known story of the gay Black Korean War veteran who sued the state of Florida in 1961 for firing him due to his sexuality—and won
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a look into the year that defined World War II, a children’s book about Indian cuisine, and a biography of an American nature writer
Where Homer Simpson Meets Osama bin Laden
Lock Books stocks and publishes the world’s strangest collection of ephemera—from masks used by bank robbers to 9/11-themed video games
The Bard of Britain
At 77, Ian McEwan hopes to be remembered for more than Atonement
Mrs. Dalloway at 100
A century on, Virginia Woolf’s breakthrough novel remains modern
Ken Follett’s World Without End
The Welsh thriller author on producing such a vast archive—and the lure of Stonehenge, the subject of his latest book
Spark of Genius
Muriel Spark, one of the most admired British novelists of the 20th century, led a mystically charged life that uncannily melded fact and fiction
Still More Mitford-Mania
Mimi Pond has written and illustrated a graphic novel about her own lifelong fascination with the infamous sisters
Mick Herron’s Horse Sense
The Slow Horses author on the inspiration for Jackson Lamb, taking a page out of Stephen King’s book, and what his third act would look like
London Confidential
Boodle’s, Blacks, Buck’s, Brooks’s … A new coffee-table book takes readers on a tour of the city’s private members’ clubs
The Pride and Prejudice That Almost Was
Duets on horseback, Philadelphia nightlife … Inside an unmade Hollywood-musical version of the Austen classic, starring Judy Garland and Peter Lawford
The Hippie Mafia
Fifteen years after the publication of my book on the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, here’s how I infiltrated the infamous Laguna Beach LSD cartel that supplied everyone from John Lennon to Steve Jobs
