Kindling the fire of knowledge
Penguin's new edition of Sigmund Freud's essential Civilization and its Discontents is slim enough to be carried at all times, says Nicholas Lezard.
Nip and tuck and nip again
Hope Donahue was a beautiful, wealthy teenager, fixated by her appearance. By 23, she was a veteran of cosmetic surgery. Perfect nose, lips, cheeks seemed to spell happiness. She tells how she finally realised she had to escape the scalpel.
Under the skin
Mark Honigsbaum on The Life and Death of Smallpox, Ian and Jenifer Glynn's history of a disease that, although eradicated, still causes fear.
A plague on all your houses
Simon Wessely finds Susan Scott, Christopher Duncan and Ole Benedictow at loggerheads over the causes of Black Death.
Back from the brink
He lost his home, his reputation and - nearly - his sanity. Even when his doctor gave him six months to live, Chris McCully couldn't stop drinking. So how did he finally quit?
Who am I?
Paul Bloom proposes biological foundations for the split between mind and body in Descartes' Baby.
My joints are rusty cranes
Julia Darling: Writing poetry in hospital can provide patients with a new language for harnessing pain and helplessness.
No going back
Having a child is an ordeal from which you never quite recover. In Making Babies, Anne Enright confesses to the real trauma of motherhood.
Saddle of Vespa all’Italiana
John Foot's taste buds are tickled by Matthew Fort's gastronomic Vespa trip, Eating Up Italy, but left unsatisfied by Carol Helstosky's Garlic and Oil, a history of Italian food that misses a few prime morsels.