Features
We have the French Revolution to thank for Ordnance Survey maps
You could say it started because of the French. The turmoil caused by their revolution got the British military worried…
Judgment day: the danger of courts taking over politics
Who runs Britain? When Boris Johnson’s lawyers made their case in front of the Supreme Court this week, defending his…
How to stop drones
Drones have come of age in the war on terror. When the United States and Britain invaded Afghanistan in 2001,…
I’m sorry because I failed: An interview with David Cameron
‘How have you been?’ David Cameron asks, bounding up to meet me. Fine, I say, then make the mistake of…
I was a Remainer – but I now want no deal
When I told two neighbours that I had become a no-deal Brexiter they physically recoiled from me. ‘You can’t.’ ‘But…
How to live life like a drunk
Since I’m not an alcoholic, recovering or otherwise, I don’t belong to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) but I am close to…
As Greta and Malala show, the children know best
The first book I ever produced, some 50 years ago, was a collection of poetry written by children. I called…
My puppy-training advice for Boris Johnson
President Harry Truman once observed: ‘If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.’ Boris Johnson, as Prime Minister…
The rebel alliance has taken control of parliament – and Brexit. What happens next?
Every Monday, a group of unlikely bedfellows meet in Jeremy Corbyn’s parliamentary office. Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat leader; Ian Blackford,…
Boris has more in common with Corbyn than he thinks
Boris Johnson’s opponents love to accuse him of using the ‘Trump playbook’. Some on the left have become so obsessed…
Why is everyone on Facebook so paranoid about their privacy?
There’s a line in Desperately Seeking Susan where Madonna (Susan) reads aloud the diary of Roberta, the bored housewife she…
Pericles for PM: Boris should forget Augustus and stay focused on his hero
Boris Johnson is a gung-ho classicist. He has supported the subject throughout his journalistic and political career, is a generous…
Katharine Gun: the spy who tried to stop the Iraq war
In his memoir of office, Decision Points, George W. Bush writes about going to see Tony Blair in the Azores…
For the first time since 1171, Ireland has more power than England
Watching Boris Johnson in Dublin, where he came to ask Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to get him out of a hole,…
American universities are fuelled by amphetamines – so I tried them
New York A biography of Freud to my left, a black leather lounger to my right. We were 30 minutes…
Inside the unassuming house where the Brontës’ creativity thrived
‘Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless?’ Jane Eyre asks Mr…
Boris Johnson could be about to lose everything – or redefine British politics
Boris Johnson has already decided on his election message: vote for me and get Brexit, vote for anyone else and…
Brexit has its risks. But staying in the EU is now unthinkable
This is one of the most crucial weeks in modern British history. We have a prime minister and cabinet who…
The Queen can handle coups – she’s been on the receiving end of one
Supplies of Brexit invective are now almost exhausted. While the Prime Minister is denounced for denouncing Remainers as ‘collaborators’, his…
Gatekeeper anxiety: a new disease for our times
A general election looms, the outcome could go almost any way and those who normally offer themselves as experts are…
Revealed: the press regulator’s leaked guidelines on Islamophobia
If truthful reporting risks increasing tension between communities, should it still be published? Do journalists have a social duty to…
The press regulator must not turn into a religious thought police
Next year I will begin my fifth decade as a working journalist. As a writer, as an executive — and…
In defence of trophy hunting
‘Why would anyone want to destroy something so beautiful, then stuff its poor lifeless body to keep as some kind…
Moving to the country for a better life was a huge mistake
As newlyweds in our late twenties, my husband and I decided to move from a crime-ridden (if trendy) London postcode…
Algeria reminds us that the current of colonisation doesn’t always run just one way
As you glide in to land at the airport outside Algiers, the landscape resembles that of Tuscany: a coastal plain…
