For weeks, journalists have pestered Opposition leader Bill Shorten about the cost of his climate policies. At the first leaders’…

I see that some members of the media have started referring to the election as ‘boring’. I disagree with them.…

A wealthy, white, male, middle-aged American Christian takes his wife on holiday to Australia. Hiking through the Tasmanian wilderness one…

Labor’s water hypocrisy  What water scandal? ‘I acted on the recommendations of my department which had conducted an independent, competitive…

There are certain predictable signposts on the road to polling day that are handy reference points for those tracking progress.…

‘NOW is Not the time for Business AS usual,’ read the grumpy boy’s placard as he munched on an apple…

There now remains just two weeks of campaigning before we, the public, decide whether it will be Labor or the…

Last Tuesday evening, I tweeted the following: ‘Can the Beeb arrange for Andrew Neil to interview this Greta Thunberg character?…

The electorate shows little sign of being interested in politicians offering bribes, wearing caps, eating, playing with children, horsing around…

‘The danger is in pleasing an immediate public: the immediate public that comes around you and takes you in and…

Recently at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, new university president Lawrence Bacow was blocked from giving his speech on universities and…

Something’s been missing from Westminster these past few days. Normally, in an election week, there is a buzz about the…

Lesbian tourism has long been a thing — women who once kissed a girl trying to appear more interesting while…

The news over Easter that Lord Adonis, the counterweight to nominative determinism, was standing as a Labour Remain MEP was…

 Montego Bay, Jamaica When the Kennedy clan were children, JFK and his siblings would tear off their clothes before leaping…

I have been a defence lawyer for more than 25 years. I have defended clients charged with almost every crime…

For those of us who grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, there is a pungent but negative sense…

Los Angeles has its shortcomings. Some are shared with almost all big cities (traffic, more traffic), while others are unique…

‘You can get away from everything,’ said Harold Wilson of the Isles of Scilly, ‘not only in distance but also…

When a political party is in trouble, we see infighting, leak inquiries, resignations, dismissals and botched attempts to depose the…

Sometimes life takes an unexpected turn. So it was for me a few weeks ago when, driving up the A1…

Home Of those who voted Conservative in 2017, 53 per cent intend to vote for the Brexit party in the…

As soon as the blaze that nearly brought down Notre Dame was extinguished, two questions were asked: how did it…

Great shakes Shale gas commissioner Natascha Engel resigned in protest at what she called ‘absurd’ restrictions on fracking — in…

Compensation for abuse Sir: Christopher Akehurst wonders about the appropriateness of financial compensation for sexual abuse claimants, an idea I…

It is more than three years since the town of Tisdale, Saskatchewan, decided to ditch its motto ‘Land of Rape…

This is the time of year when the English countryside reaches peak incredible: when we rural folk mentally pinch ourselves…

Last week, on the first day of the government’s ban on farmers shooting pest birds, I walked across St James’s…

If you’re a bloke in a suit who’d like to apply for the governorship of the Bank of England (deadline…

Despite efforts to prevent them, British women formed a part of the Indian empire almost from the start. Although the…

Edmund Burke, as a young Irish lawyer in 1756, first made the distinction between beauty and sublimity. Beauty for Burke…

The discovery of oil in Baku brought Ummulbanu Asadullayeva’s family respect if not respectability. Peasant-born, her grandparents ranked by the…

Was the Bauhaus the most inspired art school of all time or the malignant source of an uglifying industrial culture…

In 2010, Adam Sisman published a masterly biography of Hugh Trevor-Roper, who was not merely one of the best historians…

The Hebrew word for ‘truth’ – see above left  (emet) is comprised of the first, middle and last letters of…

One of the oddest of Bloomsbury’s event venues must be the Foundling Museum. The handsome building on Coram’s Fields houses…

Kate Clanchy is an extraordinary person. She is a veteran of 30 years’ teaching in difficult state schools, as well…

Gerald Martin’s titanic biography of 2010, Gabriel García Márquez: A Life, was the product of 17 years of research and…

Turkey greets you with a chilly blue eye, a flared eyebrow, a cliff-like cheekbone. The face of the republic’s founder…

The sorrow of involuntary childlessness is profound. The award-winning novelist Patrick Flanery and his husband knew this pain. Their craving…

An immortal faery queen from a magical gynocratic island arrives in Los Angeles to track down her missing daughter. This…

Emperor Maximilian I liked to say he invented the joust of the exploding shields. When a knight charged and his…

Grade: A Old skag head’s back, then — older (40 now!), probably none the wiser, still a very good songwriter.…

‘Can you fly down this evening?’ she was asked by her boss in the Delhi office of the BBC. ‘Yes,…

Channel 4’s When I Grow Up had an important lesson for middle-class white males everywhere: you’re never too young to…

The climactic central scene of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd ends unexpectedly. The naval court has reached a verdict of death,…

Tolkien is a biopic covering the early life of J.R.R. Tolkien (Nicholas Hoult) and it is not especially memorable. I’m…

It starts on a beautiful summer’s morning in the suburbs of America. A prosperous middle-aged dad is chatting with his…

Henry Moore was, it seems, one of the most notable fresh-air fiends in art history. Not only did he prefer…

One of our favourite places in London is in St Martin’s Place, just around the corner from Trafalgar Square and…

Charlottesville is an enchanting Virginia college town graced by the neoclassical architecture of the university’s founder, Thomas Jefferson. I flew…

Santino was unusually short in the leg and, in his mid-twenties, was already rapidly losing his hair. He had recently…

A leaflet came through my door from the NHS inviting me to take part (if that is the right term)…

Laikipia, Kenya   ‘An elephant has fallen over,’ said the man running up to me. My first thought was that…

‘You know what people say about you?’ Zia Mahmood told me the other day. ‘You play really well but then…

In my column of 20 April I reported on the overwhelming victory by world champion Magnus Carlsen in the elite Gashimov…

Black to play. This position is a variation from Keymer-Carlsen, Grenke 2019. Black is a piece down. What is the…

In Competition No. 3096 you were invited to submit a short story that ends ‘I feel like a half-eaten gorgonzola.’…

Clockwise round the grid from 6 run the names (9,5,7,6,8,7,8) of the leading members of a group. The unchecked and…

The second and fourth letters of six unclued lights gave abbreviations of the states forming New England: ACATER (13) Connecticut, ERNIE…

On Monday, I appeared on Good Morning Britain to debate President Trump’s forthcoming state visit with Asad Rehman, the executive…

Say what you like about Elland Road — and in my experience it is not a place to linger —…

Q. A university friend and I want to get an invitation to a very good shoot owned by a colleague…

Each suburban soul yearns for the Soho of their youth. It isn’t that Soho was better in the 1990s when…

Some birds seem inherently comical. I can’t help being amused by the duck taking its name from its habit of…