Have you ever set your face against a book? This year sees Charlotte Brontë’s bicentenary and the novelist Tracy Chevalier…

Just as the presidential race in America started to get really crazy, I left for India. On the morning of…

The Prime Minister is pretty angry with Boris. But the idea that they’ve competed with each other since school is…

I knew, the minute my job was first mooted, on the steps of San Francesco church in the sun-drenched, mafia-infested…

While browsing in Barter Books, the wonderful secondhand bookshop in Alnwick that is fast becoming a national institution, I came…

There was a cloud over the ‘Oldie of the Year’ awards luncheon this week, which was the death only a…

For years, I’ve wondered why so many clever people go to Davos to discuss topics as meaningless as ‘the new…

Quarrelling about the date of Easter has been a Christian pastime for centuries. The chief bone of contention is whether…

Whatever you do, don’t allow your six-year-old to be caught short at Crewkerne station. With the rain pouring and the…

So far my responsibilities as the 2016 chair of the Man Booker prize have been rather light. We’ve had our…

Disappointingly, the recent film about Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, does not include the thing about him which most struck…

Flying home to New York, I noticed a disturbing innovation in pre-flight cabin announcements. After the welcomes, exhortations, and promotions…

First, an apology. Thanks to me, all journalists at BBC Radio’s ethics and religion division are being sent for indoctrination…