It was only nine months ago, but it seems a world away. On 4 August, 2019, on a mild winter’s…

The new renewables religion There has been a stirring at Stonehenge. The ancient Inca spirits of Machu Picchu are coming…

Some people like to round off a meal with a glass of brandy and a cigar; others settle for coffee…

The press and the politicians deserve each other

Our children are being poorly educated thanks to the Left

Authoritarian health officials repeatedly go too far

Our reactions to the virus are ridiculous. And wrong.

Labor lap dogs dance to Beijing’s tune

The response to the corona virus in unconscionable

How Covid-19 has transformed the negotiations

‘You’d like me to write about bats? I’ve not held one in earnest for years,’ I said, although I did…

Dar es Salaam The World Health Organisation has drawn up a shortlist of countries it’s most concerned about during the…

Will the EU survive the virus?

Britain’s strange aversion to seafood

Understanding immunity to Covid-19 is like trying to decode Enigma

What if the virus had started somewhere other than China?

Trump sometimes appears more progressive than Biden

Being stuck at home will make our relationships stronger

Save the children Sir: Your leading article is correct that the government should have evaluated the detriment caused by shutting…

Home The United Kingdom seemed reluctant to come out of its lockdown. ‘We are likely to face a severe recession,…

Education is cumulative. The idea that it will be lost on a generation because, for one out of 42 terms…

Unusual crowd FC Seoul apologised after using sex dolls to try to create some atmosphere as games went ahead behind…

From the outset of the Covid-19 crisis, the government was determined that scientists would play a central and highly visible…

The choir of Notre Dame made a recording of Howard Goodall’s beautiful version of Psalm 23. Unlike cathedral choirs here…

I wonder what the Labour party will use as its scare slogan at the next election? After all, the usual…

Has the stock of any politician fallen more sharply, these past three or four years, than that of Shami Chakrabarti?…

The Royal Mail worker who rang my bell to deliver an Amazon package on Friday was wearing a glittery ball…

I identify strongly with the garden eels in the Tokyo aquarium. Pre-corona, they were perfectly sociable. Come opening hour, when…

Last month, writing elsewhere, I quoted the website of the China Centre at Jesus College, Cambridge: ‘Under the leadership of…

It started when, the day after the announcement of some lockdown easing, I drove five miles along the coast road.…

If I had a slave owner in my family background I’d probably keep quiet about it. Richard Atkinson, in his…

With more than a dozen acclaimed novels to her name, not to mention short stories, poetry, a memoir and a…

Watching Heston Blumenthal arrange the infernal horror that is a lamprey’s head on a plate is one thing; seeing an…

Fieldwork can move the most rigorous scientist to lyricism, as Mark Cocker discovers

Question: which American president and first lady would you care to imagine having intercourse? If that provokes a shudder, be…

On 6 May 2010 the eurozone crisis was tearing through the continent. Greece was bankrupt, and it looked as though…

The French have a love-hate relationship with heroes. For the great 19th-century historian Jules Michelet, the French Revolution was supposed…

We are all being digitised one way or another. Performing arts companies, not able to perform, are gamely putting themselves…

You may be asking yourself: have I reached that point in lockdown where I’m watching Icelandic dramas about the price…

The world’s greatest playwright ought to be dynamite at the movies. But it’s notoriously hard to turn a profit from…

The summer music festival has had its day, says Norman Lebrecht

Arena: The Changin’ Times of Ike White (Monday) had an extraordinary story to tell — but one that, halfway through…

The full addictive potential of classical YouTube needs to be experienced to be understood. And let’s be honest, there are…

Lynn Barber picks up a Nintendo Switch for the first time

Everyone knows a Lord Emsworth. Mine lives south of the river and wears caterpillars in his hair and wine on…

I Hoovered on Saturday (or vacuumed as they say in newspapers eager to avoid using a trademark) while my husband…

It has become a commonplace among social psychologists that one of the characteristics that unites conservatives is our sensitivity to…

Well, what can I say? I have been nowhere. Seen no one. Done nothing. Unless you count watching damaging amounts…

The unclued Across lights are of a kind, as are the associated Down ones. Across 1 Friendship revealed by American…

The most visible local landmark is a solitary two-headed Jurassic mountain called Le Bessillon, six miles long and 800 metres…

Q. My goddaughter was getting married in July but due to Covid-19 this has been postponed. I had already chosen…

White mates in two moves against any defence (composed by Walter Pulitzer). Steinitz admitted he could not crack this within…

What does a critic do when her genre collapses? Mostly I panic. I speak to restaurateurs who believe that without…

When people ask me what I did during lockdown, I would like to give an inspiring answer, apart from growing…

For all the abuse heaped on the Behavioural Insights Team early in the crisis, let’s not forget that the only…

The unclued lights are the four Labour MPs who stood for election as Labour’s leader to succeed Jeremy Corbyn: 11,…

In Competition No. 3149 you were invited to tweak an existing book or poem title for lockdown and provide an…

I like a memorial tournament. It’s true that the champions they celebrate may be less skilled than their modern counterparts.…

Gstaad The staff are back and all is well, as they used to say long ago in faraway places. The…