Features
Bring back bonkbusters!
Life is starting to look a lot like the 1980s: Russia is flexing its muscles, the Labour party is tearing…
Mussolini at Lake Como
If your destiny is to be shot dead with your mistress, where better than Lake Como, which, in the words…
The vanity line
Jeremy Corbyn may not be right about many things, but when he sat on the floor of a train, hoping…
Mussolini at Lake Como
If your destiny is to be shot dead with your mistress, where better than Lake Como, which, in the words…
Our golden age
‘We have fallen upon evil times, politics is corrupt and the social fabric is fraying.’ Who said that? Donald Trump…
Italy’s migrant purgatory
Ravenna At a car park a short walk from Dante’s tomb, one of the gang of illegal immigrants who tell…
The medal machine
Never forget Atlanta. Every time a British athlete wins a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, remember the…
Highland sting
There is no party in Britain quite as fake as the Scottish National Party. The SNP, now entrenched in its…
Who should rule Syria?
The long civil war in Syria is still far from conclusion. Any real possibility of rebel victory ended with the…
The perfect holiday cottage
‘Farm cottage available, Dorset. Long or short let. £5 per week.’ I was looking for a writing bolthole, so I…
Peggy Guggenheim
She had come a very long way from the shtetl, but Marguerite ‘Peggy’ Guggenheim was still the poor relation of…
Peggy Guggenheim
She had come a very long way from the shtetl, but Marguerite ‘Peggy’ Guggenheim was still the poor relation of…
Don’t grouse about grouse
The vast Bubye Valley Conservancy in southern Zimbabwe is slightly larger than County Durham, as well as much hotter and…
Olympic Notebook
How strange it is to be watching the Olympic Games on television. No wonder people have such rum ideas of…
Heads in the cloud
Ask me what I had for lunch yesterday and I couldn’t tell you. Names disappear as swiftly as smoke.-Birthdays, capital…
Trump holds the aces
Last week, the New York Times ran the page one headline ‘Pence Supports Ryan, Showing GOP Turmoil.’ There was turmoil…
The rainbow election
Cape Town South Africa has just seen her most encouraging election results ever. The general election of April 1994, which…
Straight talking
Thirty years ago this week, Queen performed what would turn out to be their last gig, at Knebworth. Their penultimate…
In defence of dinner parties
In or out? Almost two months on and I’m afraid the great debate shows no sign of abating, certainly not…
The first favela
Where are you going?’ demanded the boy on the wall. A walkie-talkie clipped to his denim shorts crackled, but there…
The first favela
Where are you going?’ demanded the boy on the wall. A walkie-talkie clipped to his denim shorts crackled, but there…
Brexit means sovereignty
We know what people voted against,’ say half-clever pundits, ‘but it’s far from clear what they voted for.’ Actually, it’s…
We are not a hateful nation
Britain is in the grip of an epidemic, apparently. An epidemic of hate. Barely a day passes without some policeman…
Zero tolerance, zero sanity
THE REAL HATE CRIME SCANDAL For 20 months, I stood accused of a hate crime: homophobically motivated common assault. The…
Clueless in Syria
The other day I was speaking to a Kurdish journalist who was held in Isis captivity for ten months. He…
