Features
British men shouldn’t go topless in public. Ever
England didn’t just lose the World Cup. When it comes to male nudity, the country has also lost its sense…
How easy is it to break into the Bank of England?
‘Safe as the Bank of England.’ So goes the old phrase. And yes, with walls 8ft thick, the Old Lady…
The real Brexit drama is just beginning
‘The numbers just don’t stack up,’ one cabinet minister wearily declared to me on Monday night. This is, perhaps, the…
The agony of World Cup penalties
Last week, for the first time since 1996, and for the second time in nine attempts, England won a match…
The World Cup has made us proud to be English
Buying fish at Cambridge market on Sunday, I found myself chatting to the fishmonger about the prospects for England in…
Get rid of the Dangerous Dogs Act and more people will die
When I was a child in the 1950s it was unheard of for someone to be killed by a dog.…
The lost art of patience
I’m losing my patience. Not so long ago I’d happily wait ten minutes for a bus, or even whole days…
Donald Trump is coming to Blenheim – and the protesters are ready
For more than 40 years we’ve lived in a beautiful, listed, Cotswold stone, Stonesfield slate-roofed farmhouse in Oxfordshire. The trouble…
Alpacas – the latest must-have wedding accessory
Of all the window displays in Amsterdam this spring there was just one that stopped me in my tracks. I…
What do ‘Stop Trump’ protestors think they’re going to achieve?
Last summer, the crowds in the fields at Glastonbury Festival filmed themselves chanting ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’. It was the fashionable…
Conservatives are wrong about free speech
‘There. I said it.’ That phrase, and the attitude it strikes, says something pretty specific. It doesn’t just say: here’s…
Technology has invaded our once peaceful homes
How we love our homes: we make them cosy and secure, protected from the outside world, defended by locks, bolts…
How gentlemen supplanted hooligans in football
Most British sports fans are familiar with the maxim that ‘football is a game for gentlemen played by hooligans, and…
The dream of driverless cars is dying
I was worried that going to the autonomous vehicle exhibition in Stuttgart would be tantamount to an atheist walking into…
Save us from the council verge neat-freaks
The autumn squill, Scilla autumnalis, has bright bluebell-coloured starry flowers. It is rare in the British Isles. It is also…
Tip the staff – and don’t bitch by the pool: how to be the perfect house guest
Come to our house in France, say generous friends, come to Italy, come fishing. ‘How wonderful, what shall we bring?’…
Angela’s ashes: Merkel’s grand project is crumbling
‘This is not about whether Mrs Merkel stays as chancellor next week or not,’ said Xavier Bettel, the Prime Minister…
Mass immigration has destroyed hopes of a borderless society
What kind of a president would build a wall to keep out families dreaming of a better life? It’s a…
The great nanny shortage
There is an au pair drought in the UK. Since the 2016 Referendum there has been a 75 per cent…
Donald Trump’s Space Force isn’t so stupid
Americans traumatised by their current president could be forgiven for thinking that his demand for a ‘space force’ was about…
Fifa may be corrupt but it has done wonders for football
In 1930, Jules Rimet, the creator of the Football World Cup, crossed the Atlantic in a steamship to attend the…
Travel phobia is perfectly reasonable
I have never been an adventurous soul. As an infant in Belfast, I would lie motionless for hours on the…
Who really wants to read feminist children’s books?
A friend of mine who commissions book reviews has added a sub-category to the list of titles coming up: ‘femtrend’,…
The diversity trap
Britain seems to be following America down a dangerous path. There’s your politician David Lammy accusing Oxford and Cambridge of…
A reply to my critics: Don’t fight racism with racism
Dear 2016 WriteNow mentees, Thanks so much for your open letter to me. It seems only good manners for me…
