Culture

Two Holocaust memoirs stick close to the grubby truth

"Escape from the Ghetto" by John Carr and "Yellow Star Red Star" by Agnes Kaposi are unflinchingly unsentimental.

Set on the Kent coast, Rosa Rankin-Gee's dystopia of rising sea levels and relocation paints a startling vision of the future.

Ella Al-Shamahi's history of the handshake comes at a time when humanity is reconsidering this ancient gesture, along with its risks and rewards.

Michael Rosen's column on language and its uses.

On becoming a dad, philosopher Tom Whyman was confronted with the question: "is it cruel to bring new life into an awful world?"

It has been a bad time for clubbing. But shut away at home, DJs have returned to dance music’s political roots.

Examining the complex ethical issues surrounding our treatment of animals, Esther Woolfson asks us to re-evaluate our complicity.

Period dramas traditionally exclude non-white actors. Does the practice of colourblind casting address the problem – or is it more complex than that?

Cal Flyn finds cause for hope in even the most toxic and despoiled of environments.

A striking history of the Italian city illuminates the relationship between Byzantium and western Europe.