The imagery was faintly disturbing. A powerful whitefella sits in the middle of a group of Aboriginal elders, themselves surrounded…

At the season launch for the 1987 Sheffield Shield, the South Australian captain, David Hookes, was seated next to Don…

Tony Abbott’s ‘leadership call’ on Section 18C is a double-whammy wallop in the face of liberty

Australia’s performance at the Commonwealth Games has exposed what a waste of taxpayers’ money it all is

Bob Carr and Labor have abandoned a critical ally

Can the Friends of Boris take down the Friends of George? Don't bet against them

He wants to stand for Parliament in 2015. Fine. Where?

The Scottish referendum battle still has six weeks to run. But right now there's no doubt who's ahead

The only countries willing to pay the price of leadership are ones we'd really rather didn't have it

We’re increasingly enjoined not to be nice. We seem to be listening

She lived to shock. And then she found fascism

As chairman of the National Trust, I’m part of the collection of green groups the former Environment Secretary blames for his sacking. He’s wrong

Beavers and other wonders of the Lower Mill Estate

Plus: a peaceful prediction that may finally be coming true

Home The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined 50 heads of state at the St Symphorien cemetery near Mons to…

From rural Canada to the bomb shelters of Tel Aviv

What responsibility do Gaza's rulers feel for its people? Very little, it seems

Poor treatment Sir: Jane Kelly’s article (‘No tea or sympathy’, 2 August) on the lack of empathy and emotional support…

Plus: An undervalued curator, the death of Margaret Thatcher’s first boyfriend, and the secrets buried in email spam

A sociologist who makes Malcolm Bradbury’s History Man look balanced

If you want to bring out my statist side, give your house a name and make it hard to post a leaflet through your door

It will soon seem as strange that the middle classes owned empty villas and cottages as it does that they used to have domestic staff living in the attic

Plus: The French catastrophe, One North and your bankers’ oaths

A review of Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born, by Matthew Parker. This biography of Bond's creator reveals an Ian Fleming who was cruel, vain and racist

A review of Invisible: The Dangerous Lure of the Unseen, by Philip Ball. Scientists and occultists held hands in their quest for the invisible

A review of H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald. It’s when describing the murderous, sulky, fractious birds themselves that this story comes alive

A review of The Diary of ‘Helena Morley’, translated from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Bishop. A delightful, funny and revealing memoir of Brazilian teenage life in a 19^th century mining town

A review of Reynolds: Portraiture in Action, by Mark Hallett, an investigation of the strate­gies by which the painter achieved unprecedented fame

A review of Twilight of the Eastern Gods, by Ismail Kadare. Women rescue this Virgilian tour through Khruschev’s Russia

A review of In Confidence: Talking Frankly About Fame, by Laurie Taylor. An artful distillation of over 60 long-form TV interviews, featuring everyone from Michael Frayn to Uri Geller

If you had to pick one emotion to characterise Australia’s attitude towards East Timor, it would be guilt. We are…

The acclaimed trumpeter discusses the discipline, terror and joy of jazz

Their 'Smile' is one of the great lost albums – and a Berkmann family totem

Plus: a clear and charming L'Orfeo

Brothers in Art is a welcome initiative, but it could have done with quite a few more careful loans

It's not a sunny film for a sunny day, but amid the cinematic desert of August it is at least masterfully told

The Soviet dance aesthetic now looks dated – unless you can pull it off as well as this

The acting is as good as the casting will allow, but this Young Vic production feels like a stammering lawyer interrogating a corpse

If you were a mobster with a reputation to uphold, you'd go after Roberto Saviano too

Radio 4 offers a course in developing the senses – if only the stars of Today in Parliament tuned in

Some performers think they're here for their big chance. Really, they're here to suffer

The beaches of my childhood have a fresh attraction, for all the lousy politics that comes with them

My medical treatment has changed my musical taste. But I'm afraid it hasn't improved my morals

I'm proud of avoiding freebies. Well, except for two...

And if you want to see your planning battles fought properly, make it the Italian countryside

Two very exciting tournaments drew to a close last week. The first was the Spingold, the main teams event in…

It just needs to keep its sponsors under slightly better control

The British Championship, which finished in Aberystwyth last week, has been shared by international master Jonathan Hawkins and the defending…

White to play. This is from Perez Ponsa–Frick, Tromso Olympiad 2014. How did White blast through? Answers to me at…

In Competition No. 2859 you were invited to submit an offputting party political broadcast by the Tories, Labour, the Lib…

Five clues consist of cryptic indications of partial answers; in each case, the indicated part must be treated thematically to…

The seven 2×2 squares each used the letters STAR in order, and depicted the seven major stars that make up…

It took me a while to work out. But I now think I know

If the Commonwealth Games didn't convince you, I'm not sure what will

Plus: Is it ever all right to remove an unflattering photo of oneself from someone else's album?

But the dining room is hideous

Suspect-looking terms with a surprisingly long provenance