Treasurer Jim Chalmer’s 2023 federal budget is a wicked joke being played upon the average Australian household, replete with fantasy,…

Whoever said that the Voice would usher in a new era of reconciliation, unity and love was either excessively optimistic…

Councils pushing the intolerant trans ideology

Climate BS really has baffled our brains

Why I’m missing the Budget lock-up in order to avoid doing a Peter Finch

Our great comic genius helped save many of our most precious buildings

Labor’s green-economy fantasy is fuelled by the ‘c’ word

But can it last?

If only the Victorian Libs had chosen John Roskam

It’s not only the sun that’s rising in Japan

Unintended consequences from the republican ‘silver bullet’

I n the ranks of unloved animals, rats are  surely king – so reviled that other pest species are often…

Why I think Trump will be the next US President

Who will return Ukraine’s stolen children?

Turkey’s future hangs in the balance

The Anglican priests charged with exorcising evil spirits

How the import of Danish sperm has become big business

There was much mirth in the West this week when Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day parade through Red Square included just…

Machine learning Who came up with the phrase ‘artificial intelligence’? – The term was coined by US computer scientist John…

I have always liked the phrase ‘have-a-go hero’. It sums up a certain type of person who can emerge from…

Every prime minister has at least one guilty pleasure; Rishi Sunak has several. Colleagues tease him for his taste in…

Three years ago this week marked my first misgivings about the government’s Covid lockdown. Sure, I was late to that…

An election looms and political parties are already talking ‘voter demographics’. Every few years, the wonks of Westminster pick a…

Come for the satire, stay for the one-liners, and take succour from the hope Walter finds in a world where everyone needs an angel from time to time

Frieda Hughes adopts an unfledged orphan bird, regarding him as ‘a magical creature’ – but few others find him so engaging

Attendance is in serious decline, but our churches have much to offer, especially in times of crisis, and we neglect their crumbling fabric at our peril

Nikhil Krishnan provides many amusing vignettes of Isaiah Berlin, A.J. Ayer, Gilbert Ryle and others in the heyday of linguistic philosophy

Sixteen-year-old Kit floats free from her body at night and circles invisibly over family and friends – not always liking what she sees

Ian Marchant, diagnosed with cancer in 2020, takes comfort from his ancestor’s diary (1714-28), recording a full life as farmer and mainstay of his parish

Moving among the rich of Long Island, an upmarket prostitute grows increasingly desperate as her many misdemeanours are exposed

David Grann returns to the greatest sea story ever told: of Captain Anson’s piratical feat, and ‘the mutiny that never was’ aboard the Wager

Antonia Fraser describes an intelligent, independent woman, whose penchant for cross-dressing reflected her yearning for the freedom only men enjoyed

Honor Clerk celebrates Jim Ede and his matchless collection at Kettle’s Yard

It’s funny to think that at the very moment when King Charles was going through his Coronation, pledging service and…

Fulfilling its sacred duty to serve regions that higher culture tends to avoid, Birmingham Royal Ballet made a midweek visit…

Claudia Massie talks to the botanical painter Emma Tennant about grief, finding success later in life, and her love of twigs

The Motive and the Cue breaches the inviolable sanctity of the rehearsal room. The play, set in New York in…

Sir Hubert Parry was upgraded from knight bachelor to baronet by King Edward VII in 1902, and my goodness he…

Plan 75 is a dystopian Japanese drama about a government-sponsored euthanasia programme introduced to address Japan’s ageing society. Aged 75…

As the owner of a radio alarm clock, I could theoretically start listening to the Today programme before I’m even…

Whether by accident or design, the mathematical theme of Ed Sheeran’s previous album titles (+, ×, ÷ and = respectively)…

As stage directions go, the The Magic Flute opens with a zinger. ‘Tamino enters from the right wearing a splendid…

Laura Gascoigne on the pulling power of St Francis of Assisi

I’m a long-time devotee of the op shop, as anyone who has seen my wardrobe will confirm. I’ve spent many…

A ‘sliding doors moment’ is one of those moments in life when a small, seemingly inconsequential decision (or event) goes…

In Competition No. 3298, you were invited to provide a book review in three haiku. When I saw that the…

The Alice lives in a ground-floor room of the Randolph Hotel in Oxford, which venerates the fantastical and the savage,…

Who can turn lying on a hospital gurney into a photo op? Emma Raducanu can, of course – beaming as…

A couple of years ago I thought seriously about buying an electric car. Not a hybrid, but the full monty.…

The Farm, Laikipia I realised the worst drought of this generation was at last over this morning when two Samburu…

If we cram any more doctors into our spare rooms we can put a sign outside advertising NHS accommodation. We…