Features
The May machine
Theresa May isn’t much given to shows of emotion. When Andrea Leadsom called her to concede in the Tory leadership…
Doctor’s orders
Second acts in British politics are vanishingly rare these days and Liam Fox, restored to the cabinet by Theresa May,…
May’s beard
This week, the Tory party conference ought to be gripped by the question, who the hell is Nick Timothy, the…
Of rats and men
‘I really, really hate rats,’ Sir David Attenborough has boasted. ‘If a rat appears in a room, I have to…
New York Notebook
The first presidential debate was a disappointment. Half an hour into the big Trump-Clinton show on Long Island, many among…
Croatia
Advocates of New Zealand often boast that the country is like Britain was in the 1950s. This is all well…
Croatia
Advocates of New Zealand often boast that the country is like Britain was in the 1950s. This is all well…
The party’s over
This leadership contest was meant to topple Jeremy Corbyn, or at the very least weaken him. It looks almost certain…
Importing the gentleman
Beijing Gerard Manley Hopkins said that if the English had done nothing but ‘left the world the notion of a…
Bombs astray
Soon, soon, you will see a wondrous sight,’ says the Isis anthem, ‘for your destruction, my sword has been sharpened.…
The missing lynx?
Sometimes an idea is so barmy that worrying about it ever becoming reality seems pointless. So when the Labour MP…
Victory of the swashbucklers
On 14 June, a short email popped up in the inboxes of all Financial Times editorial staff. It came from…
Five Go Back to Blyton
Six years ago, the publishers Hachette took the well-meaning yet preposterous step of making ‘sensitive text revisions’ to Enid Blyton’s…
The Victoria and Albert
Thomas Hardy, while still married to his first wife Emma, but arranging assignations in London with Florence, his second-wife-to-be, used…
And from left to left we have…
Corbyn’s allies on the hard left are lining up to reform the Labour party. Some make him look like a…
The Victoria and Albert
Thomas Hardy, while still married to his first wife Emma, but arranging assignations in London with Florence, his second-wife-to-be, used…
Trump’s forgotten people
The fit, or fugue, that Hillary Clinton suffered during a 9/11 memorial service in Manhattan on Sunday left mysteries in…
Bad grammar
It is almost mandatory, if you want to discuss grammar schools, to swap personal histories. Here’s mine: I am the…
Hush money
The new consumer obsession of my generation isn’t white goods, trainers or designer labels. It is — whisper it —…
Archers abusers
It’s been going on for months now and I must make a confession. I secretly endure a nightly battering in…
Aga can’t
Earlier this year my partner paid several hundred thousand pounds for an Aga. There’s no other way of putting it.…
London’s lost rivers
I found my first of London’s many lost rivers when I walked across Holborn Viaduct, looked down at the sweep…
London’s lost rivers
I found my first of London’s many lost rivers when I walked across Holborn Viaduct, looked down at the sweep…
Brackish as old Brylcream
Kenneth Branagh’s obsession with Larry Olivier’s career is becoming such a bizarre act of theatrical necromancy that it deserves to…
Out but not down
No group of the population voted to remain in the EU more enthusiastically than students. According to the polling organisation…
