Nods and winks of recognition

What makes a novel of ideas?

Bourgeois chronicler of multicultural London who tended to deify black foreigners and demonise native whites

A Chekhovian opera from Colin Matthews and William Boyd

BBC; DAILY EXPRESS/GETTY IMAGES ● THEY’RE NOT KEEN ...

Mark Twain and the making of an American literary revolution

Mark Gatiss’s star-filled new detective series Bookish is a case of mischievous fun