Features
The King of Christmas: A short story by Owen Matthews
The Christmas King steps slowly from his house and sniffs the evening’s chill. His tread is dainty, for all his…
‘Cook it like a prayer’: Bip Ling’s Christmas curry
This dish is refreshing and super yummy. It’s a recipe that Didas (my Indian grandmother) taught me. The zesty tomato…
Away from the manger: the holy relics of Bethlehem
‘No crib for a bed,’ says ‘Away in a Manger’ rather puzzlingly, since a crib is a manger. ‘No one…
Changing the script: the shifting character of our political parties
Elections should be carnivals of democracy. The campaign we have just been through, though, has felt more like amateur dramatics.…
All the world’s a stage: this election has echoes of Shakespeare and Dickens
The Christmas election has unfolded like a series of mini-dramas from panto, Dickens and other popular classics. Boris has come…
Finland is rebooting its politics – and its new centrism is defined by youth
Helsinki Sanna Marin is the world’s new feminist political icon. At the age of 34, she’s just been appointed the…
The chilling stories from inside China’s Muslim internment camps
Vegetable-seller Kairat Samarkhan didn’t know why he had been summoned to the police station. ‘I had to empty my pockets…
Trans activists are making life harder for trans people
This was the year that the word ‘non-binary’ went mainstream. It has now officially entered the dictionary — lexicographers at…
A river of lost souls: the extraordinary secrets of the Thames
If you spend enough time on the Thames, you will eventually come across human remains. It is a river of…
Is St Edmund’s body buried beneath a Suffolk tennis court?
Here in St Edmundsbury cathedral, a bunch of clerics and local bigwigs are preparing for a most unusual anniversary. Throughout…
Uzbekistan: where east meets west and past meets present
You realise what a rarity western tourists are when the locals ask to take selfies with you. I was standing…
The island where monkeys steal from your minibar
A short flight from Kuala Lumpur, the island of Langkawiis a wise choice for anyone seeking to shake off the…
Tsar quality: the charm of Tbilisi
‘These regions are not under the control of the central government,’ reads a warning on a map of Georgia in…
Why Tuscany always beats Provence for me
A family of peacocks is sunning itself in our villa garden. They all look extraordinarily happy and composed, especially the…
Nightmare on Downing Street: what could happen on Friday 13th?
Radicalism does not usually work out well for the Labour party. Michael Foot fought the 1983 general election on a…
What the Tories don’t understand about Corbyn voters
Until recently, the Tories seemed pretty confident about next week’s election. Despite spending three and a half years blundering over…
‘Corbyn is led by ideology, I’m led by economics’: Sajid Javid’s spending plan
If Boris Johnson wins next week, it will be on a manifesto of change. He will not deliver the fourth…
Viral videos, not leaders’ debates, could decide this election
You might well expect the final election debate, Johnson vs Corbyn head-to-head on primetime BBC, to provide the most watched…
‘You either are panto, or you aren’t’: Christopher Biggins on his favourite time of year
Christopher Biggins has managed to bag some of the nation’s favourite TV characters over the years: Lukewarm in Porridge and…
This election will change Britain – and Europe – for good
This election campaign feels unreal. Commentators focus on spending plans and personal foibles, but what will make next week’s vote…
It’s possible to talk to children about politics without leading them in one direction
My six-year-old son announced, from the back of the car, that he was backing Boris Johnson. My wife, who’s voting…
Our tree-planting obsession may do more harm than good
‘Four beef burgers is the same as flying to New York and back! FOUR BURGERS!’ When I arrived at the…
The unwritten rules of sending Christmas cards
No one sends Christmas cards any more. Except that I do, and you might, and a few other people do…
‘Austerity was not the way forward’: An interview with Boris Johnson
Only once in the post-war era has a British political party won a fourth term in office, but that is…
Allegations of anti-Semitism are damaging to Labour, but not toxic
Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, was right to take the unprecedented action of denouncing Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour for endemic anti-Jewish…
