Stanley Baldwin is remembered for saying ‘power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot through the ages’. Baldwin meant…

The iconic Australian company, Bradbury’s Chocolates, has just concluded its search for the sensible centre. But the dismal results obtained…

Although it is a winter of discontent in Europe, there was little overt evidence of it in Vienna.  It was…

The seat of Warringah, on Sydney’s northern beaches, has never been marginal and has always been held for the conservative…

After the dry comes the wet ‘Remember, after the big dry comes the big wet,’ presciently warned  salt-of-the-earth South Australian…

The Australian Senate is currently considering a bill sponsored by the ALP’s Senator Wong that, if accepted, will amend the…

‘Look here, what’s this book on my desk about Al Capone?’ ‘Why, Vice-Chancellor, it’s one of our flagship publications from…

Politically active people don’t see eye-to-eye on many issues these days, but something they all seem to agree on is…

Who needs parliament to make laws when there are clever judges who reckon they can do a far better job…

With impeccable timing, increasingly-eccentric Defence Minister Christopher Pyne this week leapt out of some bizarre theological closet to declare that…

To say that the May administration is ‘the worst government anyone can remember’ is to abuse the English language. It…

It is tempting to view the blow-up between Amazon’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos and David Pecker, publisher of the tabloid…

Two weeks ago Luigi Di Maio, Italy’s vice-premier and Labour Minister and the top politician of the Five Star Movement…

It was World Hijab Day earlier this month. You probably missed it, but you can imagine the idea: ‘global citizens’…

Over the centuries, the British royal family have been many things: conquerors, vanquishers, tyrants and buffoons. They have been denied…

If you’ve ever travelled on London’s Piccadilly Line, you may have noticed that on the stretch between Green Park and…

Even the most fervent Brexiteer would have to admit to being impressed at the cohesion and chutzpah of the European…

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, returned from a trip to Brussels and Dublin and hurried to the Commons to…

‘You OK?’ was the message I sent to Luciana Berger last week. As I scroll back through our previous WhatsApp…

Places in Hell President Donald Tusk said there must be a ‘special place in Hell reserved for those who promoted…

Last week, in an effort to understand what that left-wing hero Nicolás Maduro, President of Venezuela, must be suffering, Hieron,…

What have we learned in 2,074 years? Sir: “The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt…

On Tuesday, Le Monde published a piece it had commissioned from me to explain why, from a British point of…

Statistically, a Tory victory at the next election is unlikely. British voters tend not to grant a fourth term to…

Terrible news for gay broadcasters —  the BBC has only one year to meet a diversity target which says that…

‘Don’t even try,’ said the man on the car deck as Brittany Ferries’ Finistère tied up on the dock in…

Over Christmas, I digitised slides from my twenties. In many an unidentified photograph, I didn’t recognise the scene. Where was…

‘It is seldom wise to sacrifice a present evil for a doubtful advantage in the future,’ wrote John Maynard Keynes…

At the time of his death in 1900, John Ruskin was, according to Andrew Hill, ‘perhaps the most famous living…

Hunter Stockton Thompson blazed across the republic of American arts and letters for too short a time. When in February…

The Italian film director Federico Fellini was not known for his piety (far from it), yet towards the end of…

Having spent too much of my life at both poles (writing, not sledge-pulling), I know the spells those places cast.…

James Lasdun is my favourite ‘should be famous’ writer, his work extraordinarily taut and compelling. His eye-boggling psychological thrillers are…

Chances are, you are reading these words in some room or other. Build a wall down the middle of it,…

This is an ebullient, irreverent and deeply serious novel in the noble tradition of Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis (especially Babbitt…

When Yiyun Li first became a writer, she decided that she would leave behind her native language, Chinese, and never…

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the one to heaven may be surfaced with bad ones.…

Stendhal likened politics in literature to a pistol-shot in a concert: crude, but compelling. When that politics largely consists of…

Former Melbourne detective Colin McLaren’s cold case book into the 2009 disappearance of Bob Chappell and the 2010 conviction of…

It’s a 31ºC Mumbai morning, and on Marine Drive the Russian winter is closing in. The Symphony Orchestra of India…

A Private War is a biopic of the celebrated Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin who was, judging from this,…

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of approach to performing Schubert’s Winterreise, though sometimes there’s doubt or dispute about which…

The Dumb Waiter is a one-act play from 1957 that retains an extraordinary hold over the minds of theatre-goers. It’s…

It sounds like something out of Dickens or a novel by Thackeray, a classic case of high-minded Victorian philanthropy, but…

The best booers, in my experience, are the Germans. There’s real purpose and thickness to their vocals. Italians hiss. The…

MacDonald ‘Max’ Gill (1884–1947) is less well known than his notorious brother, Eric. But was he less of a designer,…

‘I know, let’s repaint the Sistine Chapel. But this time we’ll get it done by Banksy.’ Perhaps this wasn’t the…

I know I’m a bit late getting to the party; the party that has formed to honour the writing of…

Gstaad   Who was it that said we always hurt those we love the most? I did just that last…

My sister’s boyfriend is a solitary man and easily overwhelmed by another’s presence. On his rare visits he flits in…

Since posting some of my research into the RSPCA on Facebook, I now better understand the way social networking works.…

The pre-war Fabians Sidney and Beatrice Webb apparently had a pre-marriage agreement. It wasn’t like today’s Hollywood prenups, designed to…

Two of the best (and most enjoyable) Pairs and Teams tournaments of the year have just finished, and I miss…

The former world champion Vladimir Kramnik recently announced his retirement from competitive chess. He is one of the greats of the…

Black to play. This position is from Gelfand–Kramnik, Berlin 1996. This is one of Kramnik’s finest finishes. Can you spot…

In Competition No. 3085 you were invited to submit a poem in dispraise of Valentine’s Day. The day is said…

The seven clues below have to be interpreted cryptically and are then entered in the grid where they will fit.…

The unclued lights (10/1D, 11, 23/38, 29D/28 and 39) received knighthoods or a DBE in the recent New Year’s Honours List.…

Thousands of schoolchildren are planning to go on ‘strike’ on Friday to protest about government inaction on climate change. Called…

I’d like to propose a new scientific institution: the IUT, or Institute of Underrated Technology. Rather than trying to invent…

Q. I have learned through a third party that a friend, who is feeling particularly insecure these days, has not been…

We were discussing beer. It is a cheerful subject so I made an appropriate point. In recent years, the quality…

Ordinarily my husband is punctilious in keeping the pages of the Telegraph straight, especially when it is read by other…