Rip-roaring satire in Iota
This novel is the ninth book of the satirical series concerning Grafton Everest, a rambunctious, overweight, fictional academic who, as…
Character acting without the character
Miss Saigon may on the face of it seem like an odd choice of musical for Opera Australia to revive…
Kiwi life
It’s almost a cliché to say that 15 March, 2019 was a black day in New Zealand’s history; in fact…
Language
I suggest the right word for Hamas is ‘barbarians’. It was the Greeks who coined this word when savage, uncivilised…
How to police protest
Armistice Day is meant to be a moment of solemn national unity. Yet this year it is expected to coincide…
Why was an erroneous graph used to justify the second lockdown?
Two stories are emerging from the Covid Inquiry: one that it wants to tell and one that it does not.…
Hope might be the only strategy Sunak has left
The first King’s Speech for more than 70 years was a festival of the expected: the royal reading of a…
Britain has led the way on migration
Human trafficking is a multi-billion-pound global industry. It is fuelled by the desperation of migrants seeking a better life and…
Benjamin Netanyahu is increasingly seen as Israel’s curse
Jerusalem On Tuesday, I was driving down to an Israeli army headquarters on the border with Gaza as…
The unfathomable depths of Palestinian despair
Away from Gaza, things are getting worse in the West Bank. I’ve received many messages from Palestinian friends raging at…
‘The food is as good as you will find in London’: Saison at Raffles London, reviewed
The Old War Office (bad acronym OWO) on Whitehall is now a Raffles hotel: you can stay in Winston Churchill’s…
Dear Mary: how do I stop my wife from sleeping naked?
Q. Wealthy ex-pat friends came to stay and, despite being attended to assiduously by our major domo, they left without…
English cricket doesn’t travel well
It’s a tricky old time for cricket. The collapse of England’s World Cup white-ballers – and how they have managed…
