‘Dirty Enoch Powell said to the immigrants, immigrants you better get back to your commonwealth homes,’ rapped Paul McCartney, as…

A sigh of relief swept through Australia on budget night when Prime Minister Trumble announced that he had discovered the…

‘That sounded like gunfire,’ said one of my dinner companions, glancing towards the window. We were a quarter of a…

Want to stop the world and get off? Try spending some time on a yacht with extremely limited communications racing…

Imagine: scouts burst into Queen Elizabeth I’s throne room. ‘Your Majesty,’ they pant, ‘the Spanish have sent an armada to…

‘Come and take a look at this – you’re not going to believe it’ my wife called out recently from…

Writing at Climate Etc., esteemed climate scientist Dr Judith Curry has urged greater attention to the uncertainties of scientific research…

‘I don’t think we’re likely to get to know the Moslems very well, and I suspect that if we should,…

The murderous, cowardly and unprovoked Muslim attacks on the West continue, the war for the Caliphate kills more innocents, but…

In the Australian on the 6th of June, a senior British Muslim politician, Sajid Javid, in response to the latest…

The election of President Trump was, along with Brexit, one of the great events, not only of 2016, but of…

You have probably been hearing a lot about doorsteps recently. Politicians love to demonstrate how much they care about ordinary,…

On 6 July 1535, the severed head of England’s former lord chancellor, Sir Thomas More, was carried across London Bridge…

British general elections have often evolved from contests between parties into battles between two opposing themes or ideas. In 1964,…

My taxi was about 90 seconds behind the murderers who struck on London Bridge last week. My wife and I…

For as long as there have been politicians, they have lied, fabricated and deceived. The manufacture of falsehood has changed…

 Washington DC At 8:06 on Tuesday morning the Tweeter-in-Chief reached for his Android phone and told the world: ‘During my…

Who’s afraid of the dark? Who now fears shadows and bumps in the night? Where do you even find any…

As if we needed reminding, this past week has shown that the Islamist threat is a truly global problem. In…

Terrorists’ guilt Sir: A small contribution to the psychological war: when the next atrocity happens, could the BBC and other…

Home Eight people were killed and 48 taken to hospital when three men, in a hire van travelling south shortly…

Hundreds of terrorists and suspected terrorists have gone through the British educational system. Yet amid all the pre-election talk about…

In a political ‘post-truth’ world, currently the subject of a slew of books, emotions and personal belief are said to…

The last limp gambit of the Tory campaign was a promise to revive the Board of Trade. As a way…

Saturday evening in Durham. My in-laws and I had just begun our usual postprandial shout about Donald Trump when my…

There’s an expression used in football to describe an approach to the game that discounts the virtues of elegance, style,…

I divide my time between two constituencies, the first a rock-solid Conservative seat in the south-east of England, the other…

By the time you read this, the campaign will have drawn fractiously to its close, so here is a strong…

The hopes of those who want Britain to stay in the EU have been dashed by this election. There has…

‘An English peer of very old title is desirous of marrying at once a very wealthy lady, her age and…

This large and splendid book is more in the nature of a grand illustrated guidebook than a historical monograph. Hundreds…

This may seem an odd thing to say about a writer who’s been officially declared a National Living Treasure in…

The Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party in February 1956 passed off entirely without incident. Speeches on the next five-year…

Before Brooklyn exceeded it in cool, Manhattanites spoke dismissively of BNTs. These were the Bridge ‘n’ Tunnel folk, the out-of-towners…

What’s this? An autobiography by Stuart Hall? Wasn’t he one of the guys who put the Eng. Lit. departments out…

‘It was easy, it was cheap, go and do it,’ sang the Desperate Bicycles on their self-funded debut single in…

It’s not often that books make me laugh aloud. Even books I’m officially finding funny often do no more than…

A sold-out session at the Sydney Writers’ Festival was an indication of public interest in the writer, A. N. Wilson,…

Thrilling debuts, starry guests and a tear-stained farewell at Covent Garden this week as the Royal Ballet closed the season…

My Cousin Rachel is an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s mystery-romance and, even though it stars the forever wonderful Rachel…

By chance on Saturday morning, I tuned into Radio 4 and heard Professor Clare Brant talking on Saturday Live about…

There’s an incredibly addictive old iPhone game called Doodle God where you effectively invent civilisation from scratch by combining basic…

The problem Calvin Broadus has is persuading the rest of us that he still a baaaad muthafucka. Snoop is now…

Playing in an orchestra that disintegrates mid-concert is not an experience you forget. One moment everything’s motoring along nicely. Suddenly…

Late on the Friday afternoon of The Great Escape — the annual three-day event for which the London music industry…

Handel’s Semele, one of the most enjoyable operas (or opera-oratorio, if you insist) in the repertoire, is, in its upshot,…

Sand in the Sandwiches is the perfect show for those who feel the West End should be an intellectual funfair.…

Every time I read Andrew Robson’s bridge column and he mentions that ‘a reader from wherever’ sent him an interesting…

White to play. This is from Wyvill-Williams, London 1851. Can you spot White’s fine winning coup which exploited various tactical…

In Competition No. 3001 you were invited to take inspiration from the recently published Walt Whitman’s Guide to Manly Health…

In ten clues the wordplay leads to the answer plus one extra letter. These letters in clue order give a…

Procne (37D), Tereus (23D), Scylla (19D) and Arachne (30D) were all given as anagrams, as was Ovid (42D). Daphne (1D)…

Q. We have received a ‘save the week’ card from friends who take a villa abroad every year. We usually…

To the Ned, as diarists say when they can’t provide a rational reason for their voyage: the colossal banking hall…

New York   Main Street is a place, but it’s mostly an idea. It’s where locally owned shops sell stuff…

‘Get ready for the stink,’ said Oscar as we walked up the concrete ramp to the entrance of the ape…

In My Fair Lady, which came out as a film in 1964, 50 years after Shaw’s Pygmalion, they decided to…

‘I’m afraid you’ve made a mistake with my council tax,’ I said to the lady at Guildford Borough Council. ‘Right,’…

Kingsley Amis said the most depressing words in the English language were ‘Shall we go straight in?’ — meaning no…

Comrades. I’m going to tell you why I think Jeremy Corbyn is the right person to lead this country. First…

Nobody I know has ever been interviewed by an opinion pollster. Nor do I ever encounter anybody who has won…

With the election dominating the news, this week I focus on the strongest chess player to have entered Parliament. Marmaduke…