The curse of conservatism
The election victory of Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party came as welcome news this week. Welcome news…
Brown study
Some recent events in Melbourne and in the Federal Court have shown us what is in store for us if…
Australian notes
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has thrown his support behind truth-telling as a softener for the emotional campaign for the Voice…
Footy versus ballet?
All the different aspects of a culture collide and interconnect. Melbourne is the undisputed capital of Australian rules football (which…
Aussie life
Prior to the threatened rewriting of the Australian constitution can we stop re-writing the English dictionary and the meanings of…
Language
According to American journalist Kaylee McGhee White (writing in the Washington Examiner) it is now officially okay to use the…
Letters
Putin’s options Sir: I agree with Paul Wood that Vladimir Putin is on the back foot (‘Cornered’, 24 September). His…
Diary
Moscow A week of somewhat mixed messages from the Kremlin. One day Vladimir Putin opened Europe’s largest Ferris wheel…
Puzzle No. 722
Black to play and win. A variation from the game Aronian-Ivanchuk, Julius Baer Generation Cup, September 2022. Ivanchuk could have…
Our private terrors
Every summer, during our holiday in Orkney, there is a moment of panic. We’re standing on a dizzying cliff –…
French fancies
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris is a comedy-drama based on the 1958 novel by Paul Gallico about a cheerful, kind-hearted…
Blood and honey
In Competition No. 3268, you were invited to recast an extract from children’s literature in the horror genre. In the…
I’m in trouble with the police
There is almost nothing I like more than a running battle. As my friend Julie Burchill also says, when a…
The turf
The swallows who nest yearly in my garage have agreed that ‘that’s enough baby-making for this year’, and started their…
His own worst enemy
The Radetzky March must be one of the dozen greatest European novels – but its author was frighteningly unpleasant, says Philip Hensher
