Features
Is any kind of sex still taboo in literature?
Is there any kind of love that novelists still can’t touch?
Patrick McLoughlin on HS2, rebellion and Ukip
Transport Secretary and ex-miner Patrick McLoughlin on chasing Ukip and why HS2 won’t be a done deal by the election
How the politically correct garden grows
Gardens should be places of pleasure, not eco-correctness
Simon Callow’s notebook: What it’s like to lose at an awards ceremony
It was one of those weeks. On Monday, I was in four countries: I woke up at crack of dawn…
When a survivor of Auschwitz asks for your story, what do you say?
What do you feel when a survivor of Auschwitz tells you their story?
If homophobia is a problem for bobsled, why is it OK for cricket?
If anti-gay laws make it wrong to ski in Russia, don’t they also make it wrong to play cricket in Bangladesh?
Notes on... Venice
For Henry James it was ‘the repository of consolations’. Wordsworth, an earlier visitor, called it ‘the eldest child of liberty’.…
Why David Cameron's 'Northern Alliance' may reshape Europe
He has assembled a group of like-minded Europeans who have a plausible agenda to reshape the EU
Back to school with Lord Baker
The former Education Secretary is still remaking the school system at the age of 79
I’m scared to admit to being a Tory in today’s C of E
Believe me, it’s not easy to be a Tory in today’s C of E
The joy of online hatred
I know it’s not for everyone, but an online bitch-fight is so bracing
The night that saved England
If he hadn’t survived the Twelfth Night raid of 878, England as we know it might never have existed
The great art of country houses is still getting better
Last year 114,000 people flocked to Houghton Hall in north Norfolk for a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. Part of the great…
Vladimir Putin's new plan for world domination
Russia is returning as an ideological force in the world – to champion conservative values
this is a message
As I make my way to the greenhouses a seagull kills me in its pure white throat. Quiet in the…
The Environment Agency cares more about wildlife than people
The Environment Agency may not be much use to humans, but it does great things for the depressed river mussel
Don’t you dare tell me to check my privilege
Welcome to feminism in the age of intersectionality
The church of self-worship
Sunday morning among the atheists
Why has Britain signed up for the world’s most expensive power station?
Britain is about to buy the world’s most expensive power station
Ian Buruma’s notebook: Teenagers discover Montaigne the blogger
Bard College in upstate New York, where I teach in the spring semester, is an interesting institution, once better known…
Investment trusts – the way the City saves
Investment trusts are coming back into fashion – and rightly so
You, too, can be a shale profiteer
Here’s how to get a slice of the fracking action
The American economy vs gravity
Reality may be about to reassert itself after an extraordinary hot streak
A perfect haven of peace in north Devon
It was late September. My wife and I were feeling overworked and overstressed — our mental states not helped by…
this is a message
As I make my way to the greenhouses a seagull kills me in its pure white throat. Quiet in the…
