Diary
Diary
Did Nicola Sturgeon lie to the Scottish parliament? A Holyrood committee into the now infamous Alex Salmond affair has been…
Diary
We weren’t long into Bruce Castor’s opening speech defending Donald Trump in his impeachment trial before we knew it was…
Diary
My great-great-grandmother, born on a Barbadian plantation and transported to what was British Guiana in the 19th century, gave rise…
Diary
I start the week with someone throwing faeces at me. I thought people were supposed to clap for doctors these…
Diary
Monday started with me opening my bedroom windows to let what little light there is come through, only to find…
Diary
The thing we most need to understand right now is how you deprogram people who have been in a cult.…
Diary
Real men are not supposed to confess to feeling fear. But I am frightened, second time round, about the plague.…
Diary
Among the greatest bores right now are those friends who insist on telling you, usually as if it’s some kind…
Diary
‘Stopping the diary/’ wrote Philip Larkin, ‘Was a stun to memory,/ Was a blank starting.’ I never really understood those…
Diary
I’m often asked why Channel 4 recently banned an episode of my show The IT Crowd because of ‘transphobia’. I…
Diary
I’m often asked when I’ll write a pandemic novel. I’m not sure I’d ever be tempted, though the backdrop of…
Diary
It is such a relief that Dominic Cummings has gone. Not for the sake of the country or the government…
Diary
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is a useful stop for journalists looking for some rust-belt Americana not too far from New York. The…
Diary
American expats have a conundrum on election night: do you stay up to watch the results come in or do…
Diary
Even in this bizarre year of Covid (for everybody) and ‘cancellation’ (for me), the last week or two has stood…
Diary
Here’s a tip. When the Foreign Office advises against going somewhere, hop on the next plane. The mandarins have advised…
Diary
The weird thing about Donald Trump’s handling of Covid-19, alongside all the other weird things, is that he has always…
Diary
I first visited Orford in 1970, at peak Cold War when this stretch of the East Anglian coast was one…
Diary
I have been in Istanbul, partly to research a French-born collateral ancestor of mine, Aimée Dubucq, who, according to legend,…
Diary
The only female writers of importance I have personally met are Margaret Atwood and Joan Didion, both of whom are…
Diary
I moved to this country from the USA 30 years ago and this year I’ve finally understood why: it was…
Diary
This is a very British story. Because we Brits are often warlike but never militaristic, we often make a balls-up…
Diary
It’s never a good sign when you’re watching a scene of street terror in yet another gut-churning YouTube video and…
Diary
Staying in Britain for the summer has been, in many ways, entirely glorious. We have zigzagged from Shropshire through Derbyshire…
Diary
It’s three days since rumours swirled around France that President Macron was going to impose a ‘tit-for-tat’ quarantine on UK…
