How to lose friends and ghost people
The fine art of snubbing
Why does everyone hate Max Reger?
The German composer Max Reger, born 150 years ago next week, is mostly remembered today for countless elephantine fugues and…
The unknown German composer championed by Mahler
I was sceptical when the lady on the bus to Reading town centre told me that her father knew Liszt.…
Cardinal Pell’s righteous fury at the Vatican’s theological direction
Cardinal Pell, a former head of Vatican finances, does not criticise Pope Francis directly in the piece he’s written for…
Cardinal Zen’s conviction shows that no one is safe in Hong Kong
Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the 90-year-old retired bishop of Hong Kong, has been convicted of failing to register a humanitarian…
King Charles III’s love of classical music
Damian Thompson on King Charles III’s love of classical music
Vatican II has always been seriously misunderstood
People no longer moan about most of the things that bothered them during my childhood. You don’t hear old folk…
Papal bull: the shame of the Vatican’s dealings with China
The shame of the Vatican’s ‘respectful dialogue’ with the CCP
Why Queen Elizabeth was a Presbyterian when she died
When the Queen died, she was actually a Presbyterian. That’s because she was in residence at Balmoral, and all British…
BBC radio has excelled itself over the past week
Listening to BBC Radios 3 and 4 over the past week has been like meeting an old friend who, after…
Why the Tories should gamble on Kemi Badenoch
There’s only one candidate for prime minister with the guts to dismantle the self-loathing culture of identity politics that is…
An intimate, lucid and unforgettable new James MacMillan work
On Tuesday night I was at the world première of a motet by Sir James MacMillan and I don’t think…
Pope Francis has betrayed Cardinal Zen
When Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 90-year-old former Bishop of Hong Kong, was arrested by Chinese authorities on Wednesday and charged…
Male friendship is in crisis
The decline of male friendship
Kirill, the Patriarch in league with Putin
The Patriarch in league with Putin
The truth behind the Pope Benedict inquiry
How are we to interpret the revelation that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI misled a sex abuse inquiry? That might seem an…
Djokovic is a conspiracy super spreader
When the world’s number one tennis player Novak Djokovic found himself locked in a Melbourne hotel because he’d entered Australia…
The selfie is dead – but self-obsession is universal
Narcissism already has a new obsession
Is the Pope a Protestant?
When Pope Francis was asked last month how he was doing after surgery on his colon in July, he replied:…
Ex Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali converts to Catholicism
Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester and one of the best-known Anglican clerics, could be ordained as a Catholic…
The best recordings of the Goldberg Variations
I sometimes think the classical record industry would collapse if it weren’t for the Goldberg Variations. Every month brings more…
Technology is robbing us of the power to forget
Technology is robbing us of the power to forget
Why am I so angry?
Why have we become so quick to anger?
Playing with fire — did QAnon start as a cynical game?
The QAnon conspiracy theory may be absurd, but it can’t be ignored. It has already led to significant acts of violence, says Damian Thompson
