The deaths of NSW teenagers Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie were beyond tragic. The senseless, random nature of the violence…

Almost every newspaper in the world from China to Peru has an opinion, usually censorious, about President Hollande of France…

A few days ago I went on another of my nostalgic returns to St Kilda. As you know, I no…

Someone spilled duty-free liquor by the baggage carousel. I am flying and then bang: I land at Auckland airport. My…

Being a wife has privileges. They’re called in-laws. And it was within that spousal remit that I recently headed to…

With his tough new laws, the NSW Premier is taking the fun out of Sydney nightlife

The UK’s favourite Australian: guilty or not guilty?

Why the great Sunni-Shia conflict is getting ever closer to the surface

It's tough being young and blond in the Commons. I should know

There just isn't the political will, in Britain or elsewhere, to really act on our analysis

It all goes back to Thomas Edison

Children's shows now put environmentalism ahead of entertainment

Plus: The problem with Michelangelo's David; Florentine food is actually Cantonese food

My second tee shot soared high and straight, then hurtled down towards the lake; a repeat of my first. I…

Sex isn't what a church is meant to be about. You'd never guess

Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that he was in favour of increasing the minimum wage by…

Plus: Rediscovering Britten, and the case against more banks

How the ancients handled fat

Drink-driving campaigns have come a long way. Plus: unions' cash piles, and twentysomethings in their parents' homes

On Benefits Street Sir: Fraser Nelson asserts that people in charities do not want to talk about what life is…

Jeremy Hunt's focus on 'never events' is in the tradition of Nye Bevan

Plus: Alistair McAlpine remembered, and the secrets of the Great Xa

If you've ever thought of voting Lib Dem, this lot should change your mind

Katherine Jakeways' quietly revolutionary North by Northamptonshire

Justice shouldn't just be for the person in the dock

Plus: Labour's Lloyds plot, and the case for fewer homeowners

In Lives in Writing, David Lodge writes about Pico Iyer writing about Graham Greene, and about Martin Stannard writing about Muriel Spark, and so on...

Just when you think you're impervious to the terrors of the first world war, Helen Dunmore's The Lie cuts through like a knife

James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird is set in the mid 19th century, and is based on the real life…

Why does the country always prefer the army to politicians? Hazem Kandil's compelling Soldiers, Spies and Statesmen traces 60 years of power struggle

Boring, lazy people who eat filthy food — there's no such thing as the 'Nordic miracle', pooh-poohs Michael Booth in The Almost Nearly Perfect People

Brooks's, the club in the middle of St James's Street, was the centre of Whiggery and the watering hole of Charles James Fox. A book of essays celebrates its 250th year

Carol and John Steinbeck put all their love and idealism into his most famous novels, shows Susan Shillinglaw in Portrait of a Marriage

Adam Foulds's new novel, In the Wolf's Mouth, suffers because it's about a war that's been tackled by so many writers who know the subject much better

Hanif Kureishi's The Last Word, about an unlovable biographer tracking an unlovable writer, is ultimately rather unlovable 

Can the conflicts in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh ever stop? In Midnight's Descendants, John Keay suggests they can — and the answer lies in India

Founding fathers of proud nations are venerated. From an early age, children learn about their achievements and sacrifices. A King…

Behind the successes of women filmmakers like Bell, Gerwig and Marling, lies the sobering truth presented by Bridesmaids

A revival of Peter Konwitschny's 2005 production trumps the austere, uninvolving dourness of Barbara Frey's new version

The exhibition at Tate Britain is dull with obviousness — for some real painting go for The Elemental North at Messum's

It helps to have Meryl Streep letting rip. But you won't be missing much else...

The generous conductor gave us performances — such as Mahler's Ninth at the Proms — that attained the heights to which we all aspire

Plus: The Gay Naked Play is about art versus profit, in a theatre where art triumphed over profit

Plus: The first black female chaplain to the Queen and to the Speaker, who shuttles between Westminster and Hackney

Plus: Nigella's chance to prove that the English can beat the French and the Americans at taste domination

You've written a letter calling me a soppy geriatric Nancy-boy and vaunting your black-belt skills. But are you afraid to issue me a challenge?

When I'd finished, Ron shouted: 'Hey, make sure you wash your hands, you filthy animal!'

Oh, why did I leave BT? I've been a fool, a damn fool. Do you think they'll have me back?

Dennis McGuire took 25 minutes to die by a new drug via lethal injection. A pursuit for greater humanity has led to more inhumane ways of killing

Graeme McPherson is a successful QC and a dedicated horse trainer. The only problem is when his cases mix with his races

2014 has started with a bang! The second weekend of January saw TGR’s fifth Auction Pairs in which 71 pairs…

As promised, this week a victory by chess aficionado Dominic Lawson, former editor of The Spectator. Dominic’s distinguished opponent was…

Black to play. This is from Wojtszek-Jobava, Wijk aan Zee 2014. This week’s puzzle is a fine finish from the…

The unclued four-letter words can be paired in a particular way to form the remaining unclued lights (one of two…

The unclued lights are all geographical locations – paired as anagrams: 13/9, 23/28. 30/17, 34/6 and 42/33. (33 Down is…

The more unequal we get, the less we want to talk about it

After all, it’s the women’s Ashes that really matter, right?

Plus: How to cope with the River Café’s pigeon

Mayfair's restaurant scene has moved on, but they're still here...

This euphemism isn't just for the art world. Unfortunately

In Competition 2832 you were invited to compose what might be a quintessential opening paragraph from the pen of either…