This week, the world’s climate-obsessed leaders meet in Katowice in Poland in a desperate attempt to put teeth into the…

The European Union has never tolerated democracy. It preaches it to its member states and lectures about it to the…

The Victorian election demonstrates a desperate need for powerful leadership based on principle, something last seen in the 2013 Abbott…

I am writing this the morning after the Liberal party’s election fiasco in Victoria. And yet again we have more…

Why do all our favourite, talented (e.g. Jim Carrey, Richard Gere), much acclaimed film stars (e.g. Meryl Streep, Sally Field)…

What is the purpose of education?  The question is rarely asked as school funding dominates the debate along with the…

The two most commonly heard observations by Australians who visit Israel are firstly, that the country does not resemble the…

An act of utter corporate bastardry – but there was no alternative.  When the Commonwealth Bank’s new duo of chairman…

What’s wrong with UK financial markets? The global economy is recovering, but British stocks and shares are not keeping pace.…

On Europe’s eastern borderlands, trouble is brewing. Two headstrong leaders — Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko —…

Germaine Greer described biographers as ‘vultures’. I prefer to think of myself as a version of Philip Marlowe or Sam…

For those who believe in the European project, Brexit is a headache. Italy, on the other hand, is a bloody…

King’s Cross station at 10.30 p.m. is not a happy place. Most commuters have long returned to their centrally heated…

According to which bit of hype you read, there’s a copy of one of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher thrillers sold…

Perched on the edge of the Medway about 15 miles from Rochester is the Isle of Grain, a mass of…

While some may doubt Donald Trump’s claim to be a friend of Britain’s, his intervention in the Brexit debate this…

Brexit Theresa May, the Prime Minister, seemed to succeed in uniting the country in opposition to the withdrawal agreement to…

I got the sack the other day from the London Evening Standard, where I’ve been a weekly columnist for about…

The Irish border Sir: Contrary to the assertion that the Irish border ‘only hit the headlines’ after Leo Varadkar became…

We are heading into uncharted waters. The great hope of No. 10 and cabinet loyalists was that once Theresa May’s…

Theresa May, William Hague and others say that the EU will not want to trap Britain in the backstop because…

Nic Roeg’s art-house thriller from 1973 Don’t Look Now was most famous, or infamous, for its lengthy and explicit sex…

Gosh it hurts when your little corner of paradise is destroyed by a few idiots’ ignorance and greed. This is…

I am often extremely dismissive of people immersed in their smartphones. I tut at the mole-ish pedestrians who step out…

I wrote last week of my fear that we’ll never ‘take back control of our fish’, as Brexiteers ardently wish,…

‘To me, he was sort of like a unicorn,’ writes Mrs Obama, looking back on her courtship days with Barack.…

A long and messy business is how the chef Rowley Leigh explains his preferred way of eating. Picking at a…

Five years ago President Xi Jinping gave a speech in Kazakhstan, launching the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’, a wildly ambitious…

In 2016, inspired by reports that Donald Trump’s butler had recommended the assassination of Barack Obama, Ben Schott wrote a…

On 26 August 1880 Henry Russell consummated his marriage in an unusual way. He was, to his own mind, married…

The 20th-century painter Balthus once suggested that the author of a book about him began with the words: ‘Balthus is…

The large number of novels written in the first person would suggest it’s an easy voice to pull off: that…

Shakespeare’s Rape of Lucrece is a puzzling and often terrible poem. Lucrece, the devout wife of Collatine, is raped by…

It is, proclaimed Charles Wyndham in 1908, ‘an institution alien to the spirit of our nation’. The alien having long…

When Britain finally lowered the flag in the Iraqi city of Basra in 2007, the army’s top brass valiantly claimed…

There aren’t many histories or biographies written by Australians that sociologists and anthropologists will turn to in the future in…

On 10 September 1973 the 1930s Kensington High Street department store formerly known as Derry & Toms reopened as Big…

Grade: C A derided year in pop music, 1975 — and yet a great one. The mainstream was horrible, but…

It’s a strange compliment to pay a composer — that the most profound impression their music makes is of an…

Shortly before her husband’s funeral, the undertaker told the eponymous main character in Mrs Wilson (BBC1, Tuesday) that, ‘We’re here…

The Assyrians placed sculptures of winged human-headed bulls (lamassus) at the entrances to their capital at Nineveh, in modern Mosul,…

The Royal Ballet is a company in search of a prince. It has no lack of dancing princesses. You could…

I know nothing about Patricia Highsmith. The acclaimed American author wrote the kind of Sunday-night crime thrillers that put me…

You don’t need headphones to appreciate, and catch on to, the unique selling point of radio: its immediacy, its directness,…

Disobedience is an adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s novel about forbidden, lesbian love in orthodox Jewish north London, starring Rachel Weisz…

That a poet could enjoy huge popularity in mid-career and still be popularly admired more than a century after his…

This makes Brexit take a back seat: hints of ancient life have appeared on Mars. Carbon building blocks and other…

Three of us on a cold metal bench waiting for the bus. It’s almost dark. Winter arrived yesterday and we…

The horse dentist is handsome, with blond windswept hair and a weather-beaten face. There is something Heathcliffian about him, something…

It’s been six months since the legendary Martin Hoffman died, but I’m still not sure if I’ve quite registered the…

The Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot by Alexander Pope contains a memorable excoriation of his fellow wit and former friend Joseph…

Black to play. This is a variation from Caruana-Carlsen, World Championship (Game 10), London 2018. The black queen is trapped…

In Competition No. 3076 you were invited to submit seriously misguided love poems. You seemed to embrace this task especially…

Two unclued lights give the name of a location and another a means of arrival and -departure. Other unclued lights…

Unclued lights, individually or as a pair (38/9), are FIREWORKS.  First prize F. Whitehead, Harrogate, North YorksRunners-up I. Livingston, Wilmslow, Cheshire;…

On 21 November, a debate took place in the House of Commons about proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act…

‘And I need a wee,’ said the former England fast–bowling legend Darren Gough, as tension built up during the Sri…

Q. May I pass on a tip to anyone facing large family house parties at Christmas? I always used to…

Caffè Concerto is a chain of Italian cafés sprouting, lividly, across London and the world. There is one on Piccadilly,…

‘Just two sugars,’ said my husband as I passed him his tea. He is cutting down. I doubt he would…