Switzerland, land of mountains, cow bells and counting-house gnomes, has long charmed visitors with its promise to honour every cliche and meet all standard expectations. Two new books serve as pointed reminders that it is not always charming from the inside

Doctor Zhivago was transformed during the Cold War from a Siberian soap opera into a worldwide symbol of resistance to tyranny. How a competent but unexceptional novel came to achieve this status is a story far more interesting than the book itself

When Shiva Naipaul had a fatal heart attack at his […]

The great attraction of Siberia for three centuries of settlers, free and otherwise, had been the chance to start afresh in a land where no one would ask too many questions about a person’s past. Shaking off history remains the oldest tradition of them all