Nick Thomas-Symonds: ‘The Brexit architects essentially ran away’
With his owlish expression and affable manner, Nick Thomas-Symonds looks more like the academic that he was, rather than the…
An adorable Taiwanese debut: Left-Handed Girl reviewed
Left-Handed Girl is a Taiwanese drama about a single mother who moves back to Taipei with her two daughters to…
Bring back the Budget tipple!
Of all Gordon Brown’s mistakes, perhaps the most sobering was his decision to end the tradition of drinking at the…
Could ‘Your party’ become the shortest-lived political party in British history?
Party poopers ‘Your party’ holds its inaugural conference this weekend in a state of internal wrangling. Could it become the…
My life as a writer
It was roughly 55 years ago, at the tail end of the 1960s, that I took the monumental decision to…
The theatre isn’t a thinktank
Readers tend not to approve of rows between columnists, but I must take issue with something Lloyd Evans wrote in…
The obvious truth about BBC bias
For quite a few members of the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee, the answer to the claims…
The path to peace in Ukraine will be tortuous
In order to impose peace terms, you first need to win the war. That fundamental principle seems, for the moment,…
Are you too cool for marriage?
The term ‘spinster’ doesn’t seem to scare young women like it once might have. In fact, it is rarely heard…
Gothic lives matter: BBC2’s Civilisations reviewed
Anybody growing weary of the debate surrounding the BBC’s unexamined assumptions and biases about modern politics might have expected to…
Rachel Reeves’s road to ruin
Rachel Reeves is lucky that the name ‘omnishambles Budget’ has already been taken. When the entire document was published long…
Marriage is the real rebellion
Jonathan Swift had a suitably unromantic attitude to holy matrimony. Once, when sheltering under a tree during a storm near…
I sympathise with Rachel Reeves
The British establishment cuts its deals with fish knives. If you want to catch this country’s business leaders and political…
Portrait of the week: a shambolic Budget, Ukrainian plan and justice overhaul
Home Before Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered the Budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility accidentally released its…
What is a ‘fair’ trial, Mr Lammy?
Why are jury trials so precious? According to one prominent alumnus of Harvard Law School, who was writing in protest…
The glory of gravy
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, when Ben Gunn is found by Jim Hawkins, sunburnt and wide-eyed after three years…
The scientific case for marriage
‘Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.’ With this stern admonition, the Church has long been…
Why are we so suspicious of magpies?
I started counting magpies during my brief, doomed time as a history teacher. Trudging in every morning, the grim prospect…
The unexpected aftermath of the BB’s car crash
The garage owner came at me with an angry expression as I pulled on to his forecourt, which was the…
A sack of bilge: End, at the Dorfman Theatre, reviewed
End is the title chosen by David Eldridge for his new relationship drama. Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves star as…
The art of owning up
Though Rebecca Culley is obviously a wrong ’un – having stolen £90,000 from her dear old gramps while pretending to…
Thom Yorke reminds me of David Brent: Radiohead reviewed
There were times watching Radiohead’s first UK show for seven years when Ricky Gervais came to mind. As Thom Yorke…
Why are today’s choreographers so musically illiterate?
Most choreographers today have lost interest in using music as anything more than a background wash of colour and mood.…
The genius of William Nicholson
Even if you think you don’t know William Nicholson, it’s a fair bet that you’ve come across his work. If…
Evgeny Kissin’s stand-in brings the house down
It was such an enticing programme, too. The Philharmonia had booked Evgeny Kissin, the last great piano prodigy of the…
