Beyond the cringe
Big Brother is Nineteen Eighty-Four rewritten by Aldous Huxley. The detail that George Orwell got wrong is that far from…
Champion of the female sex
‘She is a princess endowed with all the virtues of sex; long experience has taught her how to govern these…
Immaterial world
VR ‘immersion’ is everywhere in London this autumn, but is it of any value? Stuart Jeffries takes the plunge
Pretending to be himself
Seamus Heaney’s letters are full of energy and joie de vivre, but a darker note persists as the pressure of celebrity grows, says Roy Foster
Bribery and betrayal
The philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon is portrayed as a Vicar of Bray figure, all too ready to change allegiances in one of the most volatile periods of English history
The bubble bursts
It was a born of a specific macroclimate of low interest rates following the global financial crisis – but all that is melting away and, in the case of crypto, not before time
The crimes of Le Corbusier
We can all sympathise with his desire to end bad, ugly new building, but too many of his own projects have had to be scrapped for functional reasons
Ravenous rats
Surprisingly for a novel riffing on Orwell’s dystopia, Julia is portrayed as a cheerful young woman uninterested in politics and believing in nothing at all
Familiar and strange
Each story circles around events both big and small, such as lunch at a simple trattoria, a birthday party, a summer holiday or the funeral of a friend
Making tracks
Now in her seventies, the travel writer returns to her childhood in Australia, and the trauma of losing her mother at the age of 11
Murder by the Mississippi
When the mutilated corpse of a Ku Klux Klan member is discovered, the stability of an entire city is threatened in this tale of racial tension set beside the Mississippi
Island queendom
Alice Albinia reminds us that Orkney was a trading station long before London, Iona the epicentre of Celtic Christianity and Shetland a haven for liberal Udal law
All to play for
Board games especially – dating back to at least 3000 BC – have never been idle entertainment but help boost the memory and teach valuable strategic skills
The thrill of the chase
The novelist himself admitted that his infidelities ‘produced a duality and tension that became a necessary drug for my writing’
Out of the shadows
Unlike his attention-seeking brother David Stirling, Bill was a careful planner, responsible for many successful intelligence-gathering operations behind enemy lines
Australians do not vote blindly
It is not true that Australians blindly vote No at referendums, or that the double majority requirement precludes constitutional change
Why I cannot support the ‘Voice’
On the eve of the referendum to change the Constitution by inserting a new chapter IX, the so-called Voice, people…
It can happen at Harvard
How did we get to the point that on numerous American campuses devoted to “social justice,” many student groups openly…
India vs Pakistan is the world’s greatest cricket game
An India-Pakistan cricket match is always about much more than just cricket. It is a sporting rivalry and grudge match…
Could Kevin McCarthy return as speaker?
There’s an easy way out of the chaos in the House, led by a Florida man who’s leaning on lessons…
How Britain can save Israel – and Gaza – from bloodshed
The world changed on Saturday morning with Hamas’s attack on army bases and civilian communities in Israel. What began as a Palestinian…
Hamas is not long for this world
There was long been a swell of sympathy for Hamas in the West. A certain leader of the opposition, you…
‘You are not alone’: A message to the Jewish people
I’m not Jewish myself, but most of my best friends are Jews. The reason I mention this is that, all my adult life,…
Horror in Arras: France comes under attack again
Emmanuel Macron’s appeal for France to unite has not been heeded. Barely 12 hours after the president made his address…
Poland’s history will play a vital role in its election
On 15 October, Poland goes to the polls. The Polish people must choose between two narratives for the country, each…
