Features
The Colours of London
(after Yoshio Markino, 1911) Colours of women, a grey-veiled pink, a bloom Fading to yellow, stippled, dust-hung, flecked Soot startling…
The world’s media are waiting for Mandela to die. Here’s why he’s disappointing them
The past few weeks have been an agonising dress rehearsal for the great statesman’s death
Watch out France: Nicolas Sarkozy is back, and he wants revenge
The defeated president is ready to retake his party – and wreak his revenge on François Hollande
Philip Bobbitt on Machiavelli, Obama and David Cameron
Few of today’s statesmen, says Philip Bobbitt, deserve comparison with the ‘seriously ethical’ author of The Prince
Is my rod big enough? Boris Johnson’s fishing notebook
You remember the climax of Jaws — the primeval moment when Quint the crazed Ahab-like fisherman goes mano a mano…
The Colours of London
(after Yoshio Markino, 1911) Colours of women, a grey-veiled pink, a bloom Fading to yellow, stippled, dust-hung, flecked Soot startling…
The Colours of London
(after Yoshio Markino, 1911) Colours of women, a grey-veiled pink, a bloom Fading to yellow, stippled, dust-hung, flecked Soot startling…
Seals (Iona)
No angels listen when you cry out here, but seals rise up to see, and criticize perhaps, as you intone…
Seals (Iona)
No angels listen when you cry out here, but seals rise up to see, and criticize perhaps, as you intone…
Cataclysm
It came at last, the letting-go, Up over the hill and down our street — The end of time had,…
Cataclysm
It came at last, the letting-go, Up over the hill and down our street — The end of time had,…
War Stories
The mental battle over Sunday roast: mum, my brother and myself trying our best to look interested, so he wouldn’t…
War Stories
The mental battle over Sunday roast: mum, my brother and myself trying our best to look interested, so he wouldn’t…
The Drowners
They have done this before, the two lovers, each believing the other is drowning – parting their lips as the…
The Drowners
They have done this before, the two lovers, each believing the other is drowning – parting their lips as the…
The Property of Michael Gray, If Found
A sample of things people should know about, or have heard of, whether they’re 12 or not: George Washington, George…
The Property of Michael Gray, If Found
A sample of things people should know about, or have heard of, whether they’re 12 or not: George Washington, George…
Wingless Words
Let us praise poets who are not afraid of Therefore – or of other wingless words that do what they…
Wingless Words
Let us praise poets who are not afraid of Therefore – or of other wingless words that do what they…
The Scarf
I saw Christine Lagarde outside The Wellcome Trust with a trolley case. She was wearing my scarf — the scarf…
The Scarf
I saw Christine Lagarde outside The Wellcome Trust with a trolley case. She was wearing my scarf — the scarf…
The Unborn
mooch about and waste time starting things they’ll never finish. The next world is nothing to them but shadows, some…
The Unborn
mooch about and waste time starting things they’ll never finish. The next world is nothing to them but shadows, some…
Birds in the Blue Night
Not birds I know, dank-feathered, inky-eyed, spinning in a ring until one breaks free, flies in. And already I am…
Birds in the Blue Night
Not birds I know, dank-feathered, inky-eyed, spinning in a ring until one breaks free, flies in. And already I am…
