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Artist Wendy MacNaughton (left) and writer Caroline Paul. Artist Wendy MacNaughton (left) and writer Caroline Paul. Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Image 1 of 4 Artist Wendy MacNaughton (left) and writer Caroline Paul. Artist Wendy MacNaughton (left) and writer Caroline Paul. Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Couple collaborates on book to prove that girls, too, are brave 1  /  4 Back to Gallery When Caroline Paul was still a San Francisco firefighter, a friend expressed concern that her 10-year-old daughter was becoming a “scaredy-cat.” The friend asked Paul to spend an afternoon hanging out with the girl to show her how … [Read more...] about Couple collaborates on book to prove that girls, too, are brave

Although Stalin was for decades the supreme leader of the largest country on Earth, he saw little of his empire, rarely venturing beyond the walls of the Kremlin. Instead, he experienced the USSR primarily as a series of texts that landed on his desk each day. In Stalin’s World: Dictating the Soviet Order, Sarah Davies and James Harris reconstruct his claustrophobic, insular reality through a close study of his archive, shining a spotlight on the daily business of running a massive totalitarian state. It paints a portrait of the dictator as monstrous, paper-shuffling super-bureaucrat. RJB Bosworth takes a very different approach in Mussolini’s Italy. Via an astonishing accumulation of detail, he immerses the reader in a reconstruction of daily life under the fascist dictatorship. The results are surprising: I did not know that a quarter of Italy’s Jewish population were members of the National Fascist Party by the 1930s, nor that Topolino (Mickey Mouse) was regarded … [Read more...] about Daniel Kalder picks five books that get inside the minds of dictators

Laura Compton, Style Editor Betty Lin Bigger is not necessarily better, as store owner Betty Lin proves in her 1,000-square-foot Presidio Heights boutique, stocked with labels that have a story and purpose, such as Stella McCartney, Maiyet, Suno and Ellery. Lin, a former European sportswear buyer for Nordstrom, says her customer is the fashion-forward San Francisco woman — “all of the things that you and I would like to wear, but super-edited” — to create head-to-toe looks. “I love making our clients happy and beautiful,” says Lin. 340 Presidio Ave., S.F. (415) 345-8688. www.shopbettylin.com. Freda Salvador The best shoe news of 2013, hands down, was the opening of a dedicated Freda Salvador store. Shoe designers Megan Papay and Cristina Palomo have tapped into San Francisco’s need for classic, versatile yet au courant footwear — witness fall’s modified loafers, and low boots with removable harnesses. The Cow Hollow shop feels like … [Read more...] about Top shops: Laura Compton’s picks for womenswear, books, gifts

“It’s not that I’m afraid to die,” goes the Woody Allen line. “I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” Not all writers feel the same. Some would like to be there to take notes: death is good material, “the trigger of the literary man’s biggest gun”, as William Empson put it. The ideal would be resurrection – the author, brought back to life, recounting what it feels like to expire. Next best, though not to be wished on anyone, is a drawn-out terminal illness, allowing for lengthy contemplation of what’s to come. Clive James made his name as a television critic, essayist and wit. But he began as a poet, and four years on from being handed a death sentence (with leukaemia, emphysema and kidney failure – “the lot”), he is ending as a poet. In 2013, he published his 500-page translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, which he’d been working at for decades but only finalised after … [Read more...] about Sentenced to Life review – Clive James’s poems from death’s door

Two new poems by Clive James see the gravely ill author and critic combine humour with sorrow as he quotes the last words of Napoleon and writes: "It's time to go. High time to go. High time." James, who was diagnosed with leukaemia and emphysema in 2010 and who is being treated in Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge, writes in The Emperor's Last Words of how "I gather my remaining senses / For the walk, or limp, to town", where he has a haircut, and visits an Oxfam bookshop. "Only a day out of Addenbrooke's / Where another bout of pneumonia / Damned near nailed me, / I walk slowly now, sitting on low brick walls," writes James in the poem, which has been published by the New Statesman. He adds, wryly: "But the haircut is successful, / Completing my resemblance to Buzz Aldrin / On the surface of Jupiter." James goes on to write of the books he has bought for his niece, who wants to be a writer – "when she visits me / She gets a useful lesson / On how a writer can end up" – … [Read more...] about Clive James publishes valedictory poems