Any fears that the Tony Abbott Testimonial Dinner on Sydney’s north shore last week would be a rather maudlin or…

In two recent visits to England, the ostensibly Conservative government has allowed the Extinction Rebellion extremists to shut down central…

The world needs more Australian coal, not less Most fairy tales contain important life lessons and as the father of…

Australia was recently shaken to learn of the horrifying news of two blatantly antisemitic incidents within Melbourne’s public schools. One…

I want to speak as a proud member of the Abbott cabinet, but I also want to speak as a…

I have to confess that I’m a little bit insulted that no one in the totally impartial and apolitical Commonwealth…

‘I thought there would be a range of views on this in the panel,’ said wannabe full-time Q&A host Fran…

Many people who discuss climate change believe that if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise so does the Earth’s temperature. This…

The question Labor grandees Craig Emerson and Jay Weatherill should have asked in their review of the ALP’s loss in…

For several years in the 1950s Peter Jones shared a desk with John Lennon at Quarry Bank High School for…

They wrote musicals based on the most unlikely material but John Kander and Fred Ebb enjoyed ultimate success with Cabaret…

‘We are assessing the concerns raised and will investigate whether the program met our editorial standards,’ said the ABC’s managing…

Despite the consistent poll lead and projections of a majority of about 40 seats, the Tories are still nervous. They…

Tory MPs used to think they could rely on telltale signs while out on the campaign trail — a detached…

When Boris Johnson edited this magazine, it proposed an amnesty for illegal immigrants — a controversial notion, but an idea…

This week, a malign foreign actor invaded the British media, spreading disinformation and seeking to meddle in the general election.…

How should fiscal conservatism be defined? George Osborne inherited a fiscal deficit that was clearly unsustainable. During the panic over…

Leaving the auditorium of the Royal Opera House last week after The Sleeping Beauty, I passed a woman taking selfie…

Every generation and teen subculture likes to put the boot into baby boomers like me. I’ve been physically attacked by…

Gladstone’s Library began as that most English of things: a great man’s visionary idea. William Gladstone, at the age of…

This week’s political fuss over whether the floods in Yorkshire constitute a ‘national emergency’ misses the point. It is too…

Home Nigel Farage, the leader of the Brexit party, climbed down from his resolution to field 600 candidates in the…

Thud. It’s my advance copy of Dorothy Byrne’s new book, Trust Me, I’m Not a Politician, landing on the doormat.…

Leaders called Boris How many countries have been ruled by a Boris? — Russia has had two Borises in charge.…

The England team reached the final of the rugby world cup in Japan but they lost. As athletes, they knew…

A bad idea Sir: Your editorial in favour of an amnesty for illegal immigrants (‘The case for amnesty’, 9 November)…

I was chatting to a young medical student, a very bright chap from West Africa, who was nonetheless perplexed by…

The highlight of my country calendar is when I’m lucky enough to be invited to what even the host describes…

I have a shameful secret. I’ve been watching these… videos online. Amazing what you can get in a couple of…

It cannot be other than good news that a rescuer has been found for the bankrupt remains of British Steel,…

Richard Ingrams A book that gave me great enjoyment (for all the wrong reasons) was Harvest Bells: New and Uncollected…

‘The strong do what they can. The weak suffer what they must.’ Thucydides’ principle expresses an uncomfortable truth. The eight-day…

Eleanor of Aquitaine is the most famous woman of the Middle Ages: queen of France and England, crusader, mother of…

Things keep recurring in the novels of Ben Lerner — snatches of conversation, lines of poetry, Lerner himself. But in…

What strikes me most about the Christmas gift-book industry — for industry it surely is, as I can confirm, having…

Here is a test to tell you whether you will like this book or not: when I write ‘So, no…

It’s telling that perhaps the best wine book of last year, Amber Revolution by Simon Woolf, was self-published, though you’d…

Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer-prize winning Olive Kitteridge (2008) is the novel I recommend to friends who don’t read much. Talk about…

I was looking the other day at a video of the artist Celia Paul in conversation with the curator of…

The campaign against Isis was pretty big news for most of 2016. But by the time the final showdown got…

Heinrich Schliemann had always hoped he’d find Homer’s Troy. Although he had no archaeological background to speak of, he did…

In the unlikely event that Bruce Hornsby and Morten Harket, A-ha’s singer, ended up featuring in the Daily Mail for,…

Batsford has just brought out a huge tome on Nova — ‘one of the most influential magazines in history’ —…

There’s a book about musicals that every opera lover should read. Not Since Carrie by Ken Mandelbaum is a history…

In 2011 Britain’s first skyscraper was finally given Grade I listing. The citation for 55 Broadway — the Gotham City-ish…

Some last taboos, it seems, can remain last taboos no matter how frequently they’re confronted. Grief, the menopause, masturbation, mental…

It was created in November 1957, a year before the BBC’s fabled Radiophonic Workshop, and was far more influential in…

Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story is a drama about the breakdown of a marriage and it is, at times, devastatingly painful.…

The Antipodes, by the acclaimed dramatist Annie Baker, is set in a Hollywood writers’ room. Seven hired scribblers are brainstorming…

‘Come up and see my Schieles.’ Those were the words that ended a friend’s fledgling relationship with an art collector.…

Grade: B– Deutsche Grammophon have decided that Daniil Trifonov’s new Rachmaninov piano concertos with the Philadephia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin…

At the time it felt like a century, but it was only 12 years. I began this column in 1977…

Our plane touched down in Rwanda at 7 p.m. Stepping outside on to the metal steps, I smelt that unmistakable…

The night after the fireworks display the barn was raided and our horse rugs were taken. Good job I’ve watched…

Congratulations to Janet de B and her team, who had an excellent week last week — as I know to…

When Daniil Dubov advanced his queen’s pawn in Batumi last month, he might as well have chewed the head off…

Dubov-Svane, White to play. Later in the event, Dubov played another masterpiece, sacrificing a rook to reach this extraordinary position.…

In Competition No. 3124 you were invited to compose clerihews about any date in the calendar. I was very grateful…

The unclued lights (two of two words), individually or as one pair, are of a kind.   Across 9    City…

Each of the pairs of unclued lights is a CITY (formed from the letters in the yellow squares) and its…

When a new vacuum cleaner was delivered to my house last week I assumed it was a belated birthday present…

Sports events come and go, but good manners, as William of Wykeham might have put it, last for ever. Or…

Q. I sent a WhatsApp message to a Lib Dem friend of 15 years. ‘How are you finding being a…

The Roth Bar & Grill exists on an art-farm called Durslade in Bruton, Somerset, which is also the country outpost…

People in different regions like to think their dialects incomprehensible to outsiders, yet they can usually come up with quite…