It goes without saying that when one of our most popular columnists, Peter Coleman, instructs his band of loyal readers…

There were no milling TV crews or reporters at Peter Costello’s launch last week in Melbourne of the new edition…

I blame the BBQ ribs. Rowan Dean, Peter Van Onselen, Troy Bramston and I had just finished a great dinner…

The commentariat, not the army, have staged this latest coup in our banana republic

The non-PC work of playwright Nakkiah Lui draws inspiration and laughter from dark events in her past

Commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz expose the hypocrisy of the United Nations

The killings in Copenhagen offer the perfect illustration of why you cannot appease on free speech

Tony Abbott could learn a lot from John Key, including getting rid of lacklustre ministers

Across the new Europe, a little bit of Russian influence is going a long way

Helle Brix was with Lars Vilks when the gunman opened fire. Vilks raised a beer

Can the Church of England keep the doors open for 10,000 tiny congregations?

With just ten weeks to go, however, plans for the 70th anniversary of VE day remain sketchy

Who are these chaps who insist on standing so close that you can smell their breath?

I didn’t want to read it – until I was asked to write a preface for the French translation. I was startled by what I found

It may have started with French Connection’s tedious joke about FCUK

The joys of architecture and Mafia-built motorways in Syracuse, Sicily

Plus: Why it’s madness to legalise cannabis

Home The annual rate of inflation fell to 0.3 per cent as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (or to 1.1…

Plus: why I can’t have an Afro

Plus: Who’s not paying their taxes, immigration in Denmark, and votes and prayers

Caesar knew all about spreading simple terror

From ‘The psychology of drill’, The Spectator, 20 February 1915: One is tempted to divide all men under drill into…

Japanese numbers Sir I refer to the article No Aussie Knighthood for Winston (31 January). Whilst I agree with the…

Their message sounds good. But will anyone hear it?

Blame the liberal left politicians and media for failing to confront violent anti-Semitism

Books giving the patina of science to comforting self-delusion fly off the shelves

Plus: Qatar’s continuing spending spree, and a salute to Michele Ferrero

A review of The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution by Timothy Tackett and Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution by Rebecca L. Spang suggests that fear rather than optimism was the driving force of the French revolution

A review of Mayakovsky by Bengt Jangfeldt reveals how the great avant-garde Russian poet lost his voice to Soviet doublespeak

Nobody is Missing by Catherine Lacey, a novel of extremes about a woman on the very edge, is a stylish rendering of acute suffering

A review of Most Secret Agent of Empire by Taline Ter Minassian explores the lengths one British spy went to to avoid the long arm of Soviet vengeance

A review of Cowboys and Indies by Gareth Murphy pays tribute to the men behind the scenes in the music industry

In a review of Girls will be Girls by Emer O’Toole Julie Burchill dismisses the feminist now most famous for her hairy armpits

A review of Stalin’s Agent by Boris Volodarsky unearths many nuggets of gold about 20th-century Russian intelligence history

A review of The Illuminations praises Andrew O’Hagan’s equally vivid portrayals of an old woman with dementia and a young squaddie home from Afghanistan

A review of Alexandra Fuller’s Leaving Before the Rains Come celebrates a writer born to capture the tragi-comedy of her deeply eccentric family life

As the Royal Ballet’s controversial Anthony Dowell staging of Swan Lake begins its last ever season, Ismene Brown explores why this ballet remains such an enduring enigma

Plus: a engaging exhibition of babies’ heads by Jacob Epstein at the Foundling Museum

Though some of the music is formulaic, there’s no gainsaying the vocal writing or the performances from Juan Diego Florez and Joyce DiDonato

Deborah Ross is most aroused by Christian Grey’s walk-in wardrobe - but little else

Plus: a smart, funny new play at The Space, which everyone in TV should see

Plus: Jonathan Powell delivers an extraordinarily generous gift to scheming Blairites three months before the election

Plus: J.K. Rowling reveals her grisly Stalinist social agenda in BBC One’s The Casual Vacancy and a Downton Tikka Masla from Channel 4

As ITV attempts to resurrect the 80s satire, William Cook wonders whether it was actually any good

I was the secret protégé of the greatest foreign correspondent who ever lived

The suddenness of the drama and the appalling consequences were surreal

It’s hooey but I was a sucker for the promise of safety and security —until I added up the premiums

Now that the young are turning tee-total, the best hope for the survival of heavy drinking lies with the old

Owners should be falling over themselves to fill another 20 boxes at this brilliant stable

Couples that play together stay together is not a mantra you hear too often in the bridge world. Indeed most…

Magnus Carlsen has added another trophy to his cabinet by taking the honours at the Grenke tournament in Baden Baden,…

White to play. This is from Anand v Kramnik, Zurich Rapidplay 2015. White has two ways to win this position,…

In Competition No. 2885 you were invited to write a sonnet beginning ‘Shall I compare thee to a [trisyllable of…

Fourteen solutions begin with the same letter as their clues. These letters in order are the initial letters of the…

The quotation around the perimeter is from 25 — varieties of French cheese are highlighted.   First prize Hugh Aplin,…

The trouble is, there’s no distinction between the spirit and the letter of the law

England should be grateful not to be facing Holland again – but we should all be thankful for Ireland, Scotland, Afghanistan and UAE

Plus: More means of avoiding first-name terms with call centres, and another technique for seeing off night intruders

The atmosphere is hushed and very masculine. The men are concentrating on their food

If it doesn’t remind people of Roger the Dodger or Jammie Dodgers, the word might bring to mind Alastair Campbell’s Dodgy Dossier