On March 3, 2012 the New York Times published the obituary of news photographer Stan Stearns, who had died the day before at the age of 76. Stearns had taken the photograph of the 3-yr-old John F. Kennedy, Jr., in shorts and coat, saluting his slain father, President John F. Kennedy, as he passed by in a coffin mounted on a caisson and followed by a black, rider-less horse, on November 25, 1963. This photograph is Stearns' only widely known photograph. It was, however, enough to earn him immortality. That photograph of young John Kennedy went, as we would now say, viral. It became one of the most recognizable photographs in American history. Indeed, the Times used it as the main image for Stearns' obituary. The only thing that was missing from the obituary was a comment from the boy himself. For John, that most photogenic of subjects, is no longer with us. By James Mahon, Yale University. 

Review: The Man Without a Face, The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, by Masha Gessen, Granta, 2012.

By John Murray.

In this lively account of Putin’s rise to power, Masha Gessen, a Russian-American journalist living in Moscow, believes change in Russia is imminent. Last Sunday’s election results – even allowing for vote tampering – tell a different story: Putin was and remains the country’s favourite politician by a long way, or, as the city’s leading tabloid put it, the newly elected President is “our past, our present, and out foreseeable future.”

Why? In a word, because he is not Yeltsin. For the more well-heeled middle-class Russians that is no longer enough. But for them, the problem is that they are a small minority.

Gessen belongs to this minority and duly portrays Putin as a monster. She blames him in one way or another for the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the poisoning with polonium of Alexander Litvinenko, the 1999 apartment bombings, the bloody outcomes to the siege at the Dubrovka Theatre, the massacre of children in Beslan, and a host of other foul deeds.

When Steve Jobs died last year, on October 5th, at the age of 56, from pancreatic cancer, it was the most important death in the world. Not in terms of political significance – the deaths of Osama bin Laden, Muammar Ghadafi, and Kim Jong-il were much more momentous in that respect. Not in terms of fame either – Liz Taylor and Joe Frazier were greater celebrities than Jobs when they died. And not in terms of contribution to the arts – the painter Lucian Freud, the film director Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon, Network), and the playwright Arthur Laurents (West Side Story) added more to the stock of human culture than he did. By James Mahon, Yale University.

A century and a quarter on from his first print appearance Sherlock Holmes curently has not one but two new incarnations, Robert Downey Jnr in the cinema and Benedict Cumberbatch on television. While countless other fictional heroes have come and gone, Holmes has never been more popular. But the greatest mystery remains: why do so many readers fall in love with the wizard of Baker Street? By Ed O'Hare.

Question: What unites Roger Moore, Christopher Plummer, Peter Cook, Rupert Everett and Michael Caine? Answer: They are among those who have played the most portrayed fictional character ever, the world's greatest consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. Born on the page in 1887, Sherlock Holmes has had an afterlife unlike that of any other literary creation. He is a symbol of Victorian Britain when the 'Empire' was at its height and for millions today he is as redolent of Englishness as Big Ben or Buckingham Palace. More importantly, Holmes represents intellectual brilliance and the superiority of brainpower over physical might. He is an icon of order, reason and goodness in a world grown chaotic, insane and corrupt.

William Golding, the author of The Lord of the Flies, was born 100 years ago this year. A man tormented by demons both on and off the page, he was a writer with an intimate understanding of man's capacity for violence and cruelty and his brilliant and desperate novels take an uncompromising look at human evil. By Ed O'Hare.

In 1954 a junior editor at the distinguished publishing house Faber & Faber thought he would take another look at a manuscript that his superior had left on the rejection pile. The book was a first novel by a middle-aged Cornish schoolmaster about a group of choirboys marooned on a tropical island. At first the boys try to replicate the structures of civilization but soon they revert to savagery. Attached to the manuscript was a note dismissing the novel as “absurd and uninteresting” and “rubbish and dull”. The junior editor, Charles Monteith, disagreed with this verdict. He saw something extraordinary in the book, which had already been rejected 21 times by different publishers, and recommended that Faber buy the rights, which they did for £60.

Review: How to be a Woman, Caitlin Moran, Ebury Press.

The widespread rejection of feminism, particularly by younger women, is a phenomenon evinced by the standard discussion opener, “I’m not a feminist but...”, with feminists pointing out that feminism itself has become a dirty word; the F-word of an apolitical generation whose collective false consciousness continues to perpetuate a disavowal of the women’s movement. And yet, when particular issues, such as reproductive freedom, political representation, and sexual violence are broached, women, of all ages seem to share explicitly feminist views, much in the vein of even the most ardent Germaine Greers or Kate Milletts of this world.

A ghost story writer without equal, M.R. James's tales of the supernatural have terrified generations of readers. Now a Trinity College professor has edited the definitive edition of James's stories. The perfect book to rediscover on these dark winter nights, the Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James is a masterclass in the uncanny, but don't be surprised if you find yourself sleeping with the light on. By Ed O'Hare.

During the 1990s and 2000s, the Irish Celtic Tiger model of development was hailed as a model for other European countries, but the global economic crisis has completely removed the credibility of Ireland’s approach. So where does the country go now? By Peader Kirby and Mary P. Murphy. [Event details below]

While the 2011 general election was full of the promise of reform, what has been delivered by the Fine Gael/Labour coalition has been rather piecemeal and incremental. We still await the constitutional convention, promised for this autumn and now postponed until the spring of 2012. In the meantime, energies dissipate and expectations decline.