Vita and vino
For Christmas Caroline bought me a ‘Deluxe GiftExperience’ at Chapel Down, the UK’s leading winery. I say ‘me’, but it…
High life
Southampton, Long Island These are peripatetic times for the poor little Greek boy, up to the Hamptons for some sun-seeking…
Does advertising matter?
‘Stop! Don’t fast-forward. I love this advert!’ How often do you say that? Considering that some commercial breaks run to…
The plunder of the seas
David Profumo wonders whether newly created marine reserves can really reverse decades of devastation
Down to grass roots
Thomas Piketty, the French economist who shot to fame for writing a colossal work of economics that many people bought…
Super trouper
This book begins with Sheila Hancock wondering why she is being offered a damehood. I must say I slightly wondered…
An alternative way of living
It’s been a century since the heyday of the Bloomsbury group, and now Nino Strachey, a descendant of one of…
Onwards and upwards
The great age of the Scottish autodidact must have ended a century ago, but it had a prodigious impact while…
Time is running out
This is not a book about tennis. Roger Federer appears early on, trailed by the obligatory question ‘When will he…
Women behaving badly
Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women established her as a narrator of female desire in all its complexity. Her study of three…
Sorry effort
In Competition No. 3252, you were invited to write a letter of condolence on the mis-fortune of an acquaintance which,…
You have to accept my identity as a tree
[Calm down, it’s satire.] There’s no denying the fact I’m a tree. For years I was a victim of gaslighting…
Planned chaos in Australia’s power generation
Politicians are inviting electricity chaos in Australia by promoting the closure of coal-fired power stations, but also by promoting more…
Albanese snubs CHOGM summit
Prime Minister Anthony ‘My Government’ Albanese’s enthusiasm to strut the world diplomatic stage has already begun waning. He’s announced that…
Why Biden’s inflation plan will fail
It sounded impressive at the time. On the last day of May, a whole ten days ago, president Biden laid…
The Capitol riot hearings are farcically partisan
Let’s get the boringly obvious out of the way. What happened in Washington on 6 January, 2021 was bad. Very…
The death of Russian diplomacy
‘It’s like being part of a cult,’ explains one student of Russia’s elite diplomatic academy. ‘They expect us to learn…
Ben & Jerry’s is wrong about Britain’s ‘racist’ Rwanda plan
Why is an ice cream brand lecturing Britain on the morality of its immigration policy? Ben and Jerry’s, otherwise known for…
#Auspol: rinse and repeat
Here’s my free election analysis that won’t get me on a panel show where people shout about their feelings or…
Albo and Ardern love-in
It was all smiles for the pair of socialist hard-left leaders at their first (and nauseating) press conference today. Within…
The potential danger of assisted dying
[A plausible scenario under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2022 that is worth considering.] John was 85. Two years ago,…
