Features
Holy snowflakes: why young believers need to accept faith is controversial
As well as writing about religion, I have always been an amateur religious artist. Recently I’ve been getting a bit…
The highs – and occasional lows – of long-distance walking
Long-distance walking is all the rage these days. There are all-nighters staged by charities, for instance the annual MoonWalk in…
Red London: Labour is poised to take the capital
Ever since last year’s general election, when Jeremy Corbyn inspired the strongest Labour surge since 1945, the Conservatives have been…
Sadiq Khan is a lousy London Mayor. Why hasn’t anyone noticed?
According to people at City Hall, Sadiq Khan writes some of his own press releases. I can believe it: they’ve…
We need 10,000 tigers in the wild
I am here in India looking for tigers, and am struck by the way my fellow human beings respond to…
I take no pleasure in seeing England get all out for 58
‘Ah, the old man injury!’ That’s what people said when I busted my calf a couple of years ago. At…
Macron’s Thatcher moment has arrived
The honeymoon is over for Emmanuel Macron. His first 11 months in office have been something of a breeze —…
How to be a tourist in Europe
Last week, I was in the Florence Baptistery by 8.30 a.m. That used to be early enough to avoid the…
Southend-on-Sea has long been a running joke – until now
Standing at the end of Britain’s longest pier, on a cold and misty morning, looking out across the Thames Estuary,…
How to rig an election
Andrés Sepúlveda sleeps behind bombproof doors in a maximum-security prison in central Bogota, Colombia. When travelling to judicial hearings or…
Revealed: Cambridge Analytica and the Passport King
The Cambridge Analytica story is full of hot air. Everybody delights in talking about how scary Facebook is, and lots…
When will the West take a stand on the persecution of Muslims?
Anti-Christian persecution, for so long a great untold story, has started to gain the world’s attention. But the suffering of…
Why my generation is indifferent to anti-Semitism
It took a protest of Jews in Westminster for Jeremy Corbyn to own up to the Labour party’s problem with…
A tale of two Sarahs: the cuddly bishop vs the terrifying cardinal
If you’re looking for a snapshot of the state of global Christianity today, a good place to start would be…
I averted the wrath of the students by telling them I’d had a sex change
I went to Australia with my constant companion Hilary, the only woman in England I’m not paying alimony to. She…
Monet painted London not brick-by-brick, but light-by-shade
The Savoy was too sumptuous, complained Claude Monet, returning to the hotel in 1904. His rooms — one for sleeping,…
Big data is watching you – and it wants your vote
From the outside it all looked haphazard and frenzied. A campaign that was skidding from scandal to crisis on its…
Exposed: Our dangerous dependency on antidepressants
We have become a nation of sad pill-poppers. The British, once Churchill’s ‘lion-hearted nation’, are now among the most depressed…
Antidepressants saved me – but they made my mental health worse
Antidepressants saved my life, I am sure of that. But I am also certain they made my mental illness much…
At the deathbed of Sudan, the last male northern white rhino
Laikipia, Kenya Before vets put him down in Kenya this week, I attended the deathbed of Sudan, the…
The real Russian housewives of Knightsbridge
The Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Knightsbridge is nestled in a maze of mews streets and embassy rows somewhere between Harrods…
I’d rather be fat-shamed than have cancer
Sofie Hagen is a young Danish comic I admire. I didn’t see her most recent show, Dead Baby Frog, but…
The joy of evensong
When Palestrina wrote his Mass settings and motets, or J.S. Bach his cantatas and passions, they could not have imagined…
Vladimir Putin’s toxic power
Vladimir Putin’s spies have a dizzying variety of weapons at their disposal. This week Britain learned of a new one:…
The Russian spy who went to all the Tory parties
I first met Sergey Nalobin in 2012 at Soho House. He introduced himself, in accented English, as from the Russian…
