The election to parliament of the ghoulish political figure of Dr Kerryn Phelps on the eve of Hallowe’en seems, alas,…

I’ve found a solution to the world’s problems. We need to get David Duke to say the following words: ‘Political…

It wasn’t until the mid-1980’s that the party-pooping Ulema shut down Saudi Arabia’s cinemas. So there’s a good chance that…

Here at the Islamic Research Bureau in Jeddah, we devote ourselves to unravelling the knottier issues of the law and…

When Ephialtes of Trachus betrayed the Spartans at Thermopylae (you remember the grotesque hunchback from The 300) his mind doubtless…

Contrary to reports, Wentworth has not been a blue ribbon Liberal  seat since the 1980s. And the seat is so…

The election of a so-called Independent and LGBTIQ activist as the temporary Member for Wentworth is not so much the…

Of all the rich, out-of-touch, globalist left-wing institutions, the Catholic Church is the most corrupt and depraved. Its primary sickness…

‘War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.’ So ran the newspeak of George Orwell’s dystopia, 1984. To these…

Last summer, the Oxford Dictionary declared its Word Of The Year for 2017: ‘youthquake’, defined as ‘a significant cultural, political,…

 Washington, DC As if American politics were not scary enough, the prospect of President Hillary Rodham Clinton has once again…

My father, an avowed liberal, taught me old-school manners: hold the door and give up your seat for ladies; stand…

 Calabar, Nigeria Simon Ngwa is a gentle and polite man, and he apologised to me first for what he was…

 Istanbul In another time, in another place, we might never have known about the death of Jamal Khashoggi. In a…

It’s pretty hard for Britain’s friends, here in Australia, to make sense of the mess that’s being made of Brexit.…

Richmond Park is an eerie place at this time of year. It’s not just that it’s the deer rutting season,…

In a British circus, you will no longer find big cats, dancing bears or sea lions balancing on balls. Anne,…

The first time I encountered Morwenstowe on Cornwall’s wild north-west coast I was alone. It was early spring and the…

What is the point of Philip Hammond? Most chancellors have an agenda, but it’s hard to discern any purpose or…

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, found herself in another crisis over Brexit. Backbenchers whispered that 48 letters were being…

Eight years ago, in the course of doing some research into literacy teaching in London, I visited many primary schools.…

The Royal College of Physicians has suggested that doctors should learn to talk to patients about death. But talk about…

Irish problem Sir: What James Forsyth calls ‘the EU plan’ to keep Northern Ireland in the customs union after Brexit…

Mrs May says she is taking her stand on the issue of Northern Ireland and the integrity of the United…

The Brexit negotiations are becoming so complicated that even the cabinet admits that it doesn’t understand what is going on.…

Trump has hinted that Democrats may have been secretly funding the ‘caravan’ of more than 7,000 Honduran immigrants trooping towards…

As I write, the sneering at Nick Clegg has started. The first cuckoo I’ve heard in this chorus is calling…

Halloween used to be easy. It was a fancy-dress party: you could wear whatever you liked. The idea was to…

‘Uncertainty is draining investment from the UK, with Brexit having a negative impact on eight in ten businesses,’ says Carolyn…

On 13 September 1964, at the age of 42, Philip Larkin began writing to his mother Eva (his ‘very dear…

The numbers invite awe: three billion beats in a lifetime; 100,000 miles of vessels. But on the hospital floor, wonder…

In the 1970s, when Mark Kermode first picked up an instrument, the UK record business was a very different place.…

The Romans invoked Fortuna, the goddess of luck, to explain the unexplainable; fortune-tellers study tea leaves to predict the unpredictable.…

‘I have fallen in love many times in my consulting room,’ writes the psychotherapist Jane Haynes. ‘I do not mean…

Maggie is sitting alone in the park when she’s approached by Harvey, who introduces himself as a recruiter for MI5.…

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been planting up much of the pasture on our small Cornish farm with…

A lingeringly strange atmosphere hangs about Benjamin Wood’s third novel, in which the settings and paraphernalia of a new wave…

Rarely does one have the opportunity to understand the complexities of modern political problems through the lens of an artist.…

Ennio Morricone’s staff wish it to be known that he does not write soundtracks. ‘Maestro Morricone writes “Film Music” NOT…

Just in front of me, visiting Spellbound at the Ashmolean last week, was a very rational boy of about seven…

Wolverhampton; Workington; Blackburn; Sheffield; Lancaster; Hackney. Every year English Touring Opera does what our national opera company doesn’t: packs up…

‘I’m not here to rehabilitate,’ says Pamela, who teaches creative writing to prisoners in Northern Ireland. She doesn’t think of…

Stories by Nina Raine is a bun-in-the-oven comedy with a complex back narrative. Anna, in her mid-thirties, had a boyfriend…

Like it or not, provincial ballet audiences love a story they can hum and any director planning to tour a…

‘How did this mild-mannered eye doctor end up killing hundreds of thousands of people?’ someone wondered about Bashar al-Assad in…

There is a moment in Bohemian Rhapsody when the screen swims with print. The reviews for Queen’s epic new single…

This year both Melbourne and Sydney have major exhibitions of ‘modern masters’. The big Winter show from New York, MoMA…

New York   In the dark she still looks good. The mystery and magnetism linger until dawn, then you slowly…

My reactionary first world war reading jag continues. The literature is vast, but so is my capacity and fascination. I…

Just when you thought there was nothing more for women of the left to nonsensically oppose, I bring you news…

Watching whip-thin jockey George Baker, just short of six feet, greeting his mounts used to make me think of the…

Vytas and Erikas Vainikonis, father and son bridge enthusiasts, are the generous hosts of one of the best five days…

The recently concluded European Club Cup, held at Porto Carras in Greece, resembled late medieval Italian warfare — populated by…

Black to play. This position is from Carlsen-Ding Liren, Porto Carras 2018. Black tried 1 … Nxg4 here but Carlsen…

In Competition No. 3071 you were invited to supply a demotivational poem.   This was your opportunity to come up…

Three unclued lights make up a nine-word quotation. Remaining unclued lights are of a kind.   Across 1    Norway blocking…

The word is ‘pink’. Definitions of the eight headwords are: CARNATION (9), STAB (43), CHAFFINCH (22D), SMALL SAILING SHIP (41/1A/13),…

Some interesting scientific research on gender differences was published last week. Two social scientists studied the preferences of 80,000 people…

Most people were scandalised by John McDonnell’s proposal to promote a four-day working week. But before we get incensed about…

Q. My wife and I have been married for 50 years. The marriage is basically sound but she has recently…

My friend Jonathan Gaisman recently gave rise to a profound philosophical question concerning wine. Jonathan is formidably clever. He has…

My husband, who fancies himself as something of a classicist, was delighted to see the Turkish investigators of the Khashoggi…