Sean Thomas

Why the world loves Margaret Thatcher

4 December 2023 8:52 pm

There are many rituals surrounding the placement of a new Japanese Emperor on the Chrysanthemum Throne. Perhaps the most peculiar…

Why I love terrible towns

18 November 2023 9:00 am

Why is Suella Braverman doing so well on social media?

17 November 2023 9:22 pm

As phrases go, ‘Twitter analytics’ is not the most exciting, especially now we are, apparently, meant to say ‘the social…

What BLM and the Remembrance Day protests had in common

12 November 2023 8:51 pm

Back in June 2020, I attended a quasi-legal Black Lives Matter protest in London, and a widely reviled counter protest,…

Rishi Sunak is too late – the AI monster is at the door

1 November 2023 5:00 pm

He must be a busy man, Rishi Sunak. When he’s not rescuing the country from inflation, sending the Royal Navy…

AI will destroy TV news

22 October 2023 7:13 pm

As we all know, the last few days have been filled with terrible news out of Israel and Gaza, and…

Beware interesting politicians

17 October 2023 5:00 pm

We’ve all been there, haven’t we? One minute you are sitting down, with a cup of tea, ready to listen…

How I saved a baby in Laos’s jungle

6 October 2023 4:33 pm

I was writing a thriller in northeast Laos about fifteen years ago near a town called Phonsavan, researching a mysterious…

The deep absurdity of HS2 diversity’s agenda

26 September 2023 6:15 pm

When it comes to British railway history, I can say, without exaggeration, that few places are more iconically located than…

Is your pet killing the planet?

9 September 2023 9:00 am

Having a pet is worse for the planet than flying

The unbearable strangeness of the Ukraine war

12 August 2023 10:00 am

As a journalist, I’ve been on the periphery of quite a few wars: for example, I went to Bosnia as…

America’s fierce guilt for slavery is understandable – we mustn’t import it

11 July 2023 10:53 pm

I love American roadtrips. They are the ideal way to visit 96 per cent of the country, which is determinedly…

UFOs or not – something is up

25 June 2023 2:02 am

As famous capital cities of world-straddling superpowers go, Washington DC is somewhat disappointing. The grandiose urbanism is surely meant to…

Why do we never talk about Islamic slavery?

13 June 2023 7:15 pm

The beautiful Siwa Oasis in the far western deserts of Egypt is a remarkable place, for multiple reasons. It’s probably been inhabited, continuously,…

Passport stamps

10 June 2023 9:00 am

Writers are doomed to fail in their war against AI

15 May 2023 11:11 pm

It’s a cliché of publishing that men over the age of 40 only read military history. In my case it’s not…

I demand reparations for my ancestors’ fall from grace

6 May 2023 9:00 am

I demand reparations for my ancestors’ fall from grace

Why now is the time to visit Bangkok

24 April 2023 1:27 am

In the deliciously darkened corners of the Vesper cocktail bar, in the central quartier of the Siamese capital known as Silom, the…

Hola, here’s the first Brexit Benefit

6 April 2023 12:17 am

Whenever Brexit is discussed these days, you will nearly always find a splenetic or exultant Remainer asking, often in a…

AI is the death of porn

1 April 2023 7:00 pm

I have a friend, let’s call her Ellie, who has a diverting side hustle: she sells erotic images of herself…

The decline and fall of urban America

1 April 2023 9:00 am

The death of the American city

How we forgot about Pol Pot

4 March 2023 5:30 pm

When I was a small boy, I had a favourite book: The Magic Faraway Tree, by Enid Blyton. Given that my…

East Asia’s mask obsession is a catastrophe the West must avoid

24 January 2023 2:00 am

In the Red Square Rooftop Vodka Bar of the sleekly towering Novotel Hotel, on soi 4, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, it…

Antarctica: the best journey in the world

17 December 2022 9:00 am

Nothing compares with Antarctica