Sam Leith

Gene-editing won’t save our fruit

5 May 2025 6:32 pm

The other day, I had a dismaying experience while making my usual frugal lunch. Usually, a cheese sandwich does me.…

How the EU youth mobility scheme could save Brexit

28 April 2025 4:57 pm

Rachel Reeves sounds surprisingly perky. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has, of course, been forced – we may think, through…

Winning little narrative adventure: South of Midnight reviewed

26 April 2025 9:00 am

Grade: A– For this winning little narrative adventure we are in the South – all gris-gris gumbo yaya, decaying mansions…

Keir Starmer’s Easter message wasn’t offensive

21 April 2025 4:00 pm

Fun though it is to bash Keir Starmer for everything he says or does, there’s surely a point at which…

Schools should butt out of parent WhatsApp groups

14 April 2025 6:39 pm

As if schools didn’t already have their work cut out for them controlling the behaviour of their students, they’re now…

AI slop is flooding the zone

5 April 2025 9:00 am

There are two accounts of the negative effects for humanity of the explosion of generative AI: one minatory, one trivial.…

The police raid on a Quaker meeting house is unforgivable

31 March 2025 11:39 pm

Is there anyone in the Met Police, I wonder, low-minded enough to think of things in PR terms? “I’ve got…

Ridiculously fun: Assassin’s Creed – Shadows reviewed

29 March 2025 9:00 am

Grade: A Sometimes you want to admire the pluck and inventiveness of an indie developer. At other times, you just…

Why is Keir Starmer pretending he ‘likes and respects’ Donald Trump?

24 March 2025 5:00 pm

Anyone who relishes the humiliation of Sir Keir Starmer – and I know that in this respect, if only this…

Is ‘good enough’ all we want from TV?

17 March 2025 5:23 pm

For those people with a therapeutic bent of mind, the phrase ‘good enough’ has an almost magical power. It says:…

The moral shortcomings of Palestine Action

10 March 2025 6:39 pm

Pro-Palestinian activists under the banner of Palestine Action have been waging what it’s not too much of an exaggeration to…

The anti-genius of William McGonagall, history’s worst poet

8 March 2025 9:00 am

‘Not marble nor the gilded monuments of princes,’ wrote Shakespeare, ‘shall outlive this powerful rhyme.’ To be a great poet,…

The ‘goodies and baddies’ era of world politics is over

3 March 2025 6:00 pm

It’s hard to overstate just how shocking, how grotesque and shaming, was President Trump’s outburst against Ukraine’s President Zelensky in…

AI needs to be regulated

24 February 2025 7:55 pm

On Tuesday, the government’s consultation on AI and copyright comes to an end. There doesn’t seem to be much hope…

The new Civ is gorgeous and richly rewarding

22 February 2025 9:00 am

Grade: A- It has been nearly ten years since addicts of the empire-building simulator Civilization – or Civ, as players…

Don’t blame WFH parents for absent school children

17 February 2025 5:57 pm

The Chief Inspector of the schools’ watchdog Ofsted, Sir Martyn Oliver, has said he thinks the change in working habits…

The AI industry has been given a taste of its own medicine

3 February 2025 8:33 pm

Life comes at you fast, eh? Only a few weeks ago I was grumbling in this very slot about the way in…

Scrapping Oxford’s ‘traditional’ exams won’t make things fairer

27 January 2025 6:04 pm

Are exams… racist? Are exams snobs? If a report in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph is to be credited, academics at Oxford…

The difference between Trump 45 and Trump 47

20 January 2025 6:30 pm

Him again? Donald Trump’s back in the White House. Those who thought his first term in office was an aberration…

The truth about Dominic Cummings and Elon Musk’s ‘sabotage plot’

13 January 2025 6:02 pm

A few centuries ago, when I worked on the Daily Telegraph under the editorship of the now Lord Moore, there…

A winter’s tale: Brightly Shining, by Ingvild Rishoi, reviewed

11 January 2025 9:00 am

In a poignant story reminiscent of ‘The Little Match Girl’, two Norwegian children try to dodge social services by selling wreaths and Christmas trees when their father fails to provide for them

Is it time to lay off Tulip Siddiq?

7 January 2025 12:58 am

We all have generous aunties, right? My own once let me live rent-free in her London flat for several months…

The intensity of female friendship explored

4 January 2025 9:00 am

Rachel Cooke’s spry anthology includes fiction, poetry, memoir, speeches, obituaries, letters and even comics – The Four Marys from Bunty

The downside of charity

30 December 2024 10:42 pm

I blame Charles Dickens, personally: he of David Copperfield, Little Nell, Oliver Twist and, of course, Tiny Tim. He’s the…