David Walliams deserves to be cancelled
A traditional British Christmas is not complete until we have all enjoyed the seasonal cancellation of a celebrity, under the…
Portrait of the week: Farm tax backdown, trail hunting crackdown and anti-misogyny courses for 11-year-olds
Home The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced plans to criminalise trail hunting ‘amid concerns it is being…
I’ve been duped by the Toby hoaxers
Going to see QPR on Boxing Day has become a tradition in the Young household – and not because we…
Where are you on the tightwad scale?
I once stood in a queue behind a Scotsman checking out of a hotel in Germany. After he had finished…
Dear Mary: How do we stop our generous host putting us in the worst room?
Q. Around this time of year a successful friend likes to rent an expensive ski chalet with cook and fill…
There’s nothing to fear from Madeira
Perhaps because of the Flanders and Swann song in which a louche older gentleman tries to lure a younger lady…
The ‘lovely boy’ who’s ruining our lives
We spent an hour in the Garda station trying to explain ourselves to a flame-haired police lady. She sat with…
Could our chicken-killing dog sniff out a fortune?
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna Maria, the boisterous new vizsla who gives the old one, Rocco, such a hard time, was in…
Make mine a BuzzBallz
There are always new ways for drinks companies to make alcohol seem even more exciting. Smirnoff has added gold leaf…
No passive utopia: Tibetan Sky, by Ning Ken, reviewed
Tibet is portrayed as an uneasy cultural crossroads where globalisation, spirituality and the political traumas of two peoples collide in this sardonic, erudite novel
A supernatural western: Tom’s Crossing, by Mark Z. Danielowski, reviewed
We know from the outset that things will end very darkly indeed in this epic novel set in Utah during the run-up to Halloween, 1982
The fertile chaos of Albert Camus’s mind
A comprehensive new edition of the writer’s notebooks allows us to take a deep dive into his theories about absurdity, tragedy, nobility and death and his schemes for future stories
The strange afterlife of This is Spinal Tap
The creators of the mother of all mockumentaries share anecdotes about the film’s origins, how it was made, why it matters and the way fiction transformed into fact
A prolonged love affair: The Two Roberts, by Damian Barr, reviewed
A tender, evocative novel portrays the lives of the once celebrated painters Colquhoun and MacBride, from their first meeting in Glasgow to their fractious later years
Glamour and intrigue: The Silver Book, by Olivia Laing, reviewed
A rigorously researched novel mingles fact and fiction in retelling the events that led up to the murder of the film director Pier Paolo Pasolini on 2 November 1975
The history of modern Ireland, seen through the lives of its leaders
Reading the biographies of its 16 taoisigh, we can trace Ireland’s astonishing progress from poverty-stricken backwater to thriving liberal democracy
The surreal drama of Helsinki’s history
Henrik Meinander tells the story of a city ravaged by plague, fire, war and occupation being constantly rebuilt and resettled over five centuries
The diminutive dictator who ruled Spain with an iron fist
Fifty years after Franco’s death, Giles Tremlett assesses the generalisimo’s bloodstained legacy
