‘How lucky am I?’ It was Bill Leak’s catchcry, loudly and proudly proclaimed to anyone who happened to pop into…

The Human Rights Commission must go Described by its leading victim, Bill Leak, as a ‘rogue totalitarian unit’, the Human…

IBM to back gay marriage postal vote? I presume that IBM (and every other corporation that backs gay marriage) would…

I have received an email from the Liberal Party’s Federal office: ‘The Turnbull Coalition Government is making the Racial Discrimination…

What is happening in America today should send shivers down the spine of every freedom-loving person on the planet. This…

Of all the hot air blown out by eco-alarmists, their maddest claim, the one least founded in truth, is that…

Take a deep breath. It’s started and already doesn’t look good. Last week, real life tears caused flooding when it…

My home town is better than yours. Don’t take my word for it. This month North Berwick was crowned ‘best…

It is delightful to be writing for a magazine I’ve read, man and boy, since I was 15. Such is…

Leaving the EU is the signal for a new form of cooperation with Europe

Despite the bluster, both sides need one

Are aid agencies colluding with people smugglers?

A new Hollywood film portrays Percy Fawcett as our greatest explorer. It’s pernicious nonsense

Could the mixed martial artist Conor McGregor really defeat one of the greatest boxers in history? I can’t wait to find out

It is delightful to be writing for a magazine I’ve read, man and boy, since I was 15. Such is…

Private schools have undermined their charitable status by dashing so shamelessly upmarket

When Gerry Adams rose to announce at his funeral that Martin McGuinness was no terrorist but a ‘freedom fighter’, the…

First through the exit Is Britain the first country to leave the EU? — As a full part of France,…

Last week’s events in London raised a recurrent dilemma for journalists, including me. It is a huge story when a…

From ‘The golden opportunity’, 31 March 1917: The proposal not to give women votes till they are 26 might well be modified by…

Most people are glad to see the end of a referendum campaign, but the losing side always wants to keep…

Heavy lifting Sir: James Delingpole needn’t worry (‘Where’s the due diligence on renewables’, 25 March). Malcolm Turnbull has finally found…

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, wrote a letter to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, with formal…

It’s usually best to ignore the indignant fury of the 21st-century young. We’re used to them now, these snowflakes, posing…

‘On Friday noon, July the 20th, 1714,’ begins the small, perfect 20th-century novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey, ‘the…

The thing that got me about the photo-graph which prompted the Daily Mail’s harmless but now infamous headline ‘Never mind…

How good a businessman is Donald Trump? Maybe the answer doesn’t matter, since barring death or impeachment he’ll be the…

An email from the high-minded Carnegie Endowment, marking the triggering of Article 50 and the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of…

On the website of the Australian National University in Canberra, emeritus professor of history Barry Higman lists his research interests…

Shawn Levy specialises in chronicling 20th-century hotspots such as London in the Sixties and Sinatra’s Vegas. Here, he turns his…

According to Martin Amis in The Information, the last person to have read every book ever published was Coleridge. Faced…

It’s the early 20th century, and two strange-looking boys, purportedly twins named Iko and Eko, are playing in a circus…

During and after the second world war the Fourteenth Army in Burma became famous as the Forgotten Army, almost as…

Tim Parks is a writer of some very fine books indeed, which makes it even more of a shame that…

A young Norwegian police officer finds a rusting vintage car inside a locked and disused barn, and the presence of…

The title might be taken as a provocation. In the compressed language of digital media, white tears, like first-world problems…

Thanks to Henry Williamson and Gavin Maxwell I have spent hours in the company of otters, though I have only…

When Stravinsky visited David Jones in his cold Harrow bedsit, he came away saying, ‘I have been in the presence…

Photographs of contemporary dance can look like advertisements for underwear; frequently the dancers seem to be clad in their knickers.…

Ghost in the Shell is the Hollywood live-action remake of the 1995 Japanese anime of the same name and it’s…

Do you, or do you not, fork out for an audioguide — one of those necklace-like, strappy contraptions you’re offered…

How do you make a work of art? One method is to cut things up and stick them back together…

In a world where politicians can turn into newspaper editors and former newspaper editors can seize the most coveted job…

It’s always promising when the orchestra won’t fit on the stage. For the UK première, some 97 years after it…

BREAKING NEWS: ‘Enjoyable play found at Royal Court.’ Generally, the Court likes to send its customers home feeling depressed, guilty,…

Jack Whitehall could have been perfectly awful as Paul Pennyfeather in Decline and Fall (BBC1, Fridays). He has spent most…

Opera is littered with the bodies of abandoned women. Step over Dido and Gilda, and you’ll still stumble into Donna…

It’s kind of surreal being here.’ The general sentiment, no doubt, of most people on planet Earth right now, but…

The puzzle marks the centenary of the death of a person whose name is formed by two unclued lights. Five…

Q. As an artist I’m indebted to my sponsor. I also like him, but not his habit of ringing me…

It is rare for me to write a love letter to a London restaurant, but Joe Allen, which is 40…

Repatriated after two months sur le continong, I walked down the sunny high street marvelling at English cheerfulness. A poster…

Everyone praised the staff of St Thomas’s Hospital during the terrorist attack. My husband of course brought his own fly to…

Of all the many indignities I have suffered at the hands of my iPhone, the humiliation that sickens me the…

The comedian Jimmy Carr is not necessarily a guy you would trust on much, but he was spot on the…

I can barely contain my excitement. The Easter break is nearly upon us and I will soon be heading off…

Bookmaker Paddy Power once famously declared, ‘Cheltenham is the best craic you can have and if you cannot look forward…

‘Ducking is for experts. Don’t try it.’ So says my partner Artur Malinowski every time I duck a trick in…

Whatever else you may say about it, the USSR certainly created the greatest national chess-playing machine the world has ever…

Black to play. This position is from Gligoric-Stein, Moscow 1967. Can you spot Black’s winning coup? Answers to me at…

In Competition No. 2991 you were invited to submit an April Fool disguised as a serious news feature that contains…

Extra letters in clues give CONSTABLES, defining 7, 21 and 39. Other unclued lights are CONS (12, 16, 18) and…

 Gstaad It’s my last week in the Alps, and the snow is gone, replaced by brilliant sunshine. Silence reigns, broken…