In defence of wokeness
We have been reading an awful lot about ‘wokeness’ recently. Nobody, I notice, seems to be much in favour of…
Oxford circus
If you’re looking for a sign of the academic times, you could do worse than consider the image, published in…
She was just a damn cat – and I loved her
I’ve never dug a grave before. But that was how I spent my Sunday afternoon. Three feet is awfully deep…
How do you enforce anarchy?
I had an argument once, in a pub, with an anarchosyndicalist. We’d both been on the same protest march so…
Stranger than fiction
Salman Rushdie on writing in the Age of Anything-Can-Happen
My only home-schooling success
‘What is the point of learning maths? When do you ever actually need it? How does it ever affect your…
Apocalypse in East Finchley
I was mansplaining to my wife earlier this week about why we ought to be very, very concerned by the…
You can misquote me on that
The internet is taking the joy out of citations
The heroine of the plains
Calamity Jane’s legend as brave frontierswoman, crack shot and compassionate nurse to the wounded was nurtured largely by herself. The truth, says Sam Leith, was dismayingly different
‘I was a tortured, obviously brilliant child’: James Ellroy interviewed
James Ellroy is occasionally quoted as saying he’s the greatest American crime novelist ever. The man sometimes called the ‘demon…
Who are today’s fictional heroes?
What’s a hero? There are probably at least two answers to that. One is that heroism is a moral quality:…
Remembering the genius of Clive James
‘Clive James Stirs.’ That was the standard subject line for the emails I used to get from the great Australian…
‘My wife sends me sleep bubbles’: The extraordinary world of Pete Townshend
When most rock stars have trouble sleeping, they fall back on Valium, temazepam, heroin or Jack Daniel’s. But Pete Townshend,…
Sordid confessions of a Centrist Dad
I have a shameful secret. I’ve been watching these… videos online. Amazing what you can get in a couple of…
For political discourse to survive, we must be more honest about language
When I was an English literature undergraduate, we were all very careful to avoid what used to be called the…
Oppidans vs scholars: a guide to the social politics of Eton
Every prime minister is a sociologist. Theresa May drew a distinction between citizens of somewhere and ‘citizens of nowhere’, a…
Why croquet beats cricket
People say cricket is the quintessential English game. Those people are wrong. Cricket may have a longer pedigree, but it’s…
Common sense is the real generation gap – just ask John Cleese
As I write these words, I regret to inform you, John Cleese is on his way to being cancelled. Now…
Gothic extremes of human cruelty: Cari Mora, by Thomas Harris, reviewed
It has been 13 years since Thomas Harris published a novel, and the last time he published one without Hannibal…
‘Come on, cancel me’: An interview with Bret Easton Ellis
‘I grew up in LA where we all thought fame was a joke,’ says Bret Easton Ellis. ‘My class was…
The art, beauty and joy of videogames
By day, I’m a mild-mannered book-world hanger-on; by night, I roar through the streets of Gotham in my heavily armed…
Mister Miracle, the cheesiest of all superheroes, reviewed
Mister Miracle is, on the face of it, one of the cheesiest of all costumed super-heroes. Created by Jack Kirby…
John Ruskin: the making of a modern prophet
At the time of his death in 1900, John Ruskin was, according to Andrew Hill, ‘perhaps the most famous living…
Edward Gorey: master of the macabre
‘A is for Amy who fell down the stairs/ B is for Basil, assaulted by bears…’ The Gashlycrumb Tinies, an…
I’m the latest victim of George Osborne’s austerity
I got the sack the other day from the London Evening Standard, where I’ve been a weekly columnist for about…
