Muhammad Salah, or Abu Rajab as his mates call him, is what you might call a ‘firebrand cleric’. Even, possibly,…

This column would take on an air of unreality if it did not say something sooner or later about the…

Abu Dhabi is not a place anyone should go voluntarily – which, in retrospect, made my presence there all the…

Mental gymnastics are the order of the day for those who can’t bring themselves to mention terrorism

In dangerous times, some nations replace weak leaders with strong. Here we do it the other way round

We have entered a new prudish, illiberal era

Glossing over extremist ideologies within the Islamic community will only entrench them further

WA Inc. remains a noisome memory from the 1980s as the worst political scandal in WA politics and one of…

Student politics is a rough and tumble affair. I thoroughly enjoyed the fierce ideological battles from my student politics days…

‘Reform’, a busy word, is generally thought of as synonymous with improvement. But when the opposite applies, it leads to…

Tea country is just like home, only with better service and nicer cuppas

The youth of Andalucía are marrying new technology and old traditions to make their way

The Aosta Valley may not have all the apres-ski options of the French and Swiss Alps, but it has charm to spare

It’s full of colour, spice and life — and Freddie Mercury was born there

It’s not about what you do. It’s about how you describe yourself

The police have found no evidence for ‘a paedophile network linked to No. 10’. They should now admit it.

Gozo has all the charms of a Mediterranean holiday island with none of the crowds

For years, the Scottish government has used the independence argument to avoid proper scrutiny. That has to stop

Few composers are better loved – and there are few better ways to enjoy it

We’re not building the right houses for our ageing population

For its 200th birthday, this strange and marvellous place is finally getting direct flights from St Helena

The SNP is binding universities closer to the state. Don’t expect it to stop there

Encounters with Peregrine Worsthorne, Joan Reinhardt and the Dowager Duchess of Grafton

Machiavellian Mal Sir: Spring has arrived! The shackles of Winter have been broken, the blossoms are blooming, the sun is…

Ancient medics and philosophers had thoughts on rich food. Discouraging ones

From ‘Boldness, Boldness and Again Boldness’, The Spectator, 16 October 1915: There are considerations of faith and honour which must in any…

Plus: Duelling EU figures, expensive police operations and a comparison of English and Saudi prisoners

Gove was right to pull out of the deal to train prison officers in Saudi Arabia

Home Two groups were launched, one in favour of remaining in the European Union and the other in favour of…

Out or In, both sides of the campaign are going to have their work cut out

The terms of our leaving should be put to us, just as the renegotiated terms of our staying will have been

It seems that only another crisis in Europe will decide whether Britain stays in the EU

Plus: Soap opera at Barclays; the great beer merger; Geoffrey Howe and Sir John Cowperthwaite

It was won by the charming Nadiya Hussain. But does that mean that unlimited immigration is perfectly OK?

Plus: I still don’t see how it could have been Keith Joseph who made the racist slur

Richard Mabey’s latest (and perhaps best) book shows how plants provide food for the mind and spirit as well as the body

Larissa MacFarquhar’s fascinating history of extreme selflessness

The key episode in Charles Moore second volume of Thatcher’s biography is her historic meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1984 — which eventually brought freedom to millions in Eastern Europe

The popular philosopher’s ‘response’ to Thomas Piketty is pompous, trite and economically illiterate

Dark Corners, her final novel of murder and blackmail, feels rough around the edges — but her legacy will live

According to Richard Bourne, Africa’s vast, fractured nation is lucky to have survived colonialism and the rampant corruption that followed independence

Michael Church’s The Other Classical Musics finds rhythms and melodies that put Bach and Beethoven in their place

Her ground-breaking SPQR properly captures the Populus as well as the Senatus of Rome

Garth Risk Hallberg’s epic of Seventies New York is certainly ‘cinematic’ — but it’s also wise and witty

Plus: Christopher Shinn is a subtle and gifted American dramatist but his latest, Teddy Ferrara, at the Donmar is more of a TV soap than a sharp satire

A first novel, written in a ‘gothic’ style while the author was undertaking a creative writing course, published in 2000…

Plus: ‘the breath of lost countries’ filled the airwaves in Radio 3’s Between the Ears and what it’s like to hear Gandalf read your award-winning short story live on Radio 1?

But the Channel 4 producers no doubt had a hand in preventing those 'on the run' from hiding in a tent

Plus: in praise of Birmingham Royal Ballet

It’s as if one half of the story can’t be bothered to go meet the other half, like the film’s bored of itself

Everything about this show - where you will find much grandeur and majesty amid the flurries of thick paint - feels just right

Without Mrs Oates I might have become a better pianist - but I'm pleased I didn't

Michael Tanner enjoys the first of Royal Opera’s Ariadne auf Naxos but slips out to escape the final duet

William Cook talks to the video artist about his new Yorkshire Sculpture Park show - and how he once nearly drowned

The unclued lights are FRENCH DÉPARTEMENTS, with five of them placed in the grid at their correct administrative number: 2,…

The unclued lights, either individually or as a pair, are of a kind. Ignore one accent.   Across 4 Read…

It’s the restaurant that shows what dire straits progressive politics are in – and its fajitas are excellent

Trainer Aidan O’Brien rates him as the best two-year-old he has ever handled

He is immune to bribery

The Fidé World Cup, which finished last week in Baku, boasted over $1 million in overall prize money, with $100,000…

Black to play. This is from Karjakin-Svidler, Fidé World Cup, Baku 2015. The position occurred earlier in the third game…

In Competition No. 2919 you were invited to write a poem that begins with the first line or two lines…

The English-speaking warriors who set off to free the Holy Places did not call themselves crusaders

Plus: Getting elderly acquaintances off the phone; the modern etiquette of thank-you letters

Ladbrokes has the proof of my convictions

What was a very sedate life has been livened up by the arrival of murderers and vigilantes

I think it could have a very bright future as a magazine for octogenarian lotharios

It's ample compensation for the prospect of potential serious injury and imminent financial ruin

We don’t know if our prayers are answered but we say them anyway

Two weeks playing the Bermuda Bowl (world championships) in Chennai ended heartbreakingly for England’s awesome Open Team and their loyal…