Carla Kaplan TroublemakerThe fierce, unruly life of Jessica Mitford616pp. Hurst. £27.50. At the beating heart of the Mitford myth is the cell-like linen closet at the top of Asthall Manor, where Unity

Exaggerating her beetling monobrow and wispy dark moustache in self-portraits, the artist Frida Kahlo was a female force to be reckoned with, unafraid to pour her heart onto the canvas. Only last autu

A Queer Inheritance: Alternative Histories in the National ...

Alice Loxton EleanorA 200-mile walk in search of England’slost queen352pp. Pan Macmillan. £22. Many are commemorated in stone, but few so grandly as Eleanor of Castile (d. 1290). Following her unexpec

Do not speak ill of the dead: so runs a familiar injunction, often recalled when it is already too late, and ill has been spoken. And sometimes the dead themselves set a terrible example. Consider the

Review of reviews: Books