The art of flowers
Multi-sensory exhibitions are old hat, but in the case of In Bloom – How Plants Changed Our World at Oxford’s…
Oxford’s grand new building reveals the university’s misplaced priorities
The Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in Oxford is well and truly open; there was an Open Day this weekend.…
It’s little surprise that an Israeli soldier was caught desecrating a crucifix
There’s something apposite, I suppose, about the desecration of a crucifix. In this case, it was an Israeli soldier in…
Is it any wonder people don’t send letters?
Was there some failure of communication, do you think, when the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky bought Royal Mail (with the…
London’s St James’s is losing its soul
London is full of little ecosystems: areas that are distinctive by virtue of their purpose or history and where individual…
Brussels is making your perfumes worse
‘Heliotropin,’ said the Frenchman mournfully. I was midway through lunch in Mayfair with Benoit Brosseau, whose father, Jean-Charles, created the…
Sarah Mullaly makes me grateful to be a Catholic
Granted, I was not the most obvious person to appreciate the installation of Sarah Mullaly in Canterbury, even though I…
Did Hannah Spencer’s outfit distract from her maiden speech?
Hannah Spencer’s maiden speech in the Commons – a cheerful and upbeat performance – was pegged to International Women’s Day. We…
‘Happy Friday!’: resist the tyranny of faux niceness
Five people I never met wished me a Happy Friday last Friday by email. You can pretty much be wished…
Don’t remove Andrew from the line of succession
The Sun, as ever, put it pithily: ‘Andrew’s Out of Line’, its front page says today. ‘Shamed Royal to be…
The two missing words in the King’s Andrew statement
There are, you’ll note, two little words missing from King Charles’s statement on former prince Andrew’s arrest on suspicion of…
Do we need another Gruffalo book?
Oh Lordy. Here we go. The Gruffalo is back – or rather, the Gruffalo Granny – a new take on…
The Epstein Files are a reminder that emails live forever
Still they keep coming: email after email from Jeffrey Epstein’s personal correspondence, along with the almost unmanageable amount of other…
The enigma of Melania Trump
To the question whether the Melania Trump documentary is as bad as the critics are saying, my answer would be:…
Are more fathers about to lose access to their children?
It takes a strong stomach to confront the details of the way in which Claire Throssell’s two sons – Paul, nine,…
Why are the number of abortions so high?
Consider this: at a time when we’re agonising about the demographic winter and the unwillingness of Gen Z to procreate,…
Hot cross buns are for Easter, not for life
More proof that we’ve completely lost it when it comes to the cycle of the year. It’s not just that…
Banning trail hunting is part of Labour’s endless culture war
If you actually wanted to create a law that would genuinely transform animal welfare in the UK, the sane approach…
What makes a ghost Catholic or Protestant?
W.H. Auden, in his essay on detective fiction, ‘The Guilty Vicarage’, asked: ‘Is it an accident that the detective story…
What humans can learn from mice about monogamy
Time was, we took lessons from brute creation. Medieval bestiaries, books of beasts, weren’t simply descriptions of animals; these compendiums…
The genius of William Nicholson
Even if you think you don’t know William Nicholson, it’s a fair bet that you’ve come across his work. If…
Witches, dragons and the Terrible Deev: a choice of this year’s children’s books
Highlights include boarding school antics, adventures in Persian folklore and a wealth of classic stories – including Hansel and Gretel, retold by Stephen King
Would you pay £65 for toothpaste?
Time was, you didn’t look forward to going to the dentist. Even for routine stuff, your highest aspiration would be…
A treasure chest of myths: The Poisoned King, by Katherine Rundell, reviewed
In the archipelago of Glimouria live many fantastic creatures: nereids, mermaids, riddle-posing sphinxes, and endangered dragons in need of rescue by an Outsider
Catherine Connolly’s victory was no landslide
Query: what kind of electoral landslide is it when most of the electorate doesn’t turn up? Not quite a landslide,…
