Laughing in the face of adversity
Writing from a child’s point of view is a daredevil act that Miriam Toews raises the stakes on in her…
Brother against brother
‘The Wars of the Three Kingdoms’ is the best description of the devastating conflict that erupted in England, Ireland and…
The real Norfolk
D.J. Taylor is a Norfolk native who, un-usually, has stayed put. These stories, written during the pandemic, are all set…
The good friend I never knew
I have just read an extraordinary new book. It’s by a close and old pal whom I’d count as one…
Duty vs pleasure
In this delightful sequel to her semi-autobiographical novel The Idiot (2017), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Elif…
Serious entertainment
What a weird lot crime writers are. I don’t come to this conclusion lightly, since I’m a crime writer myself,…
Rock till you drop
What do the following individuals have in common: a political activist from Suffolk; a chartered psychologist from Oxfordshire, who enjoys…
A moving experience from Paddington to Liverpool Street
It’s 8.16 on Tuesday morning and I’m actually writing this on a moving Elizabeth line train. Moving in the sense…
Cleopatra on the warpath
These Bodies of Water begins dramatically (as befits a book derived from Sabrina Mahfouz’s Royal Court show A History of…
Diary
I met a Canadian couple for lunch in Edinburgh. They were from Vancouver – he a judge, she an opera…
Ballet’s lonely pioneer
Bronislava Nijinska was constantly undermined in her lifetime – most cruelly by her brother, says Sarah Crompton
Letters
Applying myself Sir: It was interesting to read David Abulafia’s rather damning critique of the Oxbridge admissions process (‘Who’s out’,…
The turf
Seeing Fully Wet win the European Breeders Fund Maiden Stakes at Goodwood on Saturday was a genuine source of pleasure,…
Portrait of the week
Home Sue Gray starched and ironed her report for publication after the Metropolitan Police wound up its own enquiries into…
Low life
The main side effect of the six-month course of chemotherapy was ‘fatigue’. The main side effect of the three-monthly hormone…
Cruise control
Top Gun is back, nearly 40 years after the original, with reprised roles for Tom Cruise (59) and Val Kilmer…
Concerning cosmetic cowboys
My wife and I were walking by the beach the other evening. We got talking about wrinkles and scars, tattoos…
What’s next for the Liberal Democrats?
The Senate count is complex and won’t be complete for another week or more. However, around 60 per cent of…
Ricky Gervais is guilty of blasphemy
I have long thought that if Life of Brian came out today, it wouldn’t be Christians kicking up a fuss…
Will Joe Biden be impeached?
Before inflation began to eat the American economy alive, impeachflation had already undermined the office of the presidency. Donald Trump…
Is Jürgen Klopp really football’s Mr Nice Guy?
Jürgen Klopp is football’s Mr Nice Guy. Despite his Liverpool side missing out on winning the Premier League, Klopp was…
Is Nancy Pelosi’s communion ban unfair?
The Eucharist has, to use the current jargon, been weaponised in the standoff between Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US…
Pakistan’s Imran Khan goes off the deep end
The fallout from Pakistan’s recent vote of no-confidence – that saw Imran Khan ousted in favour of Prime Minister Shehbaz…
Why the Russia media thinks Britain is on the verge of cannibalism
Russian disinformation has reached new levels of absurdity. According to the pro-Kremlin media, the UK is on the verge of…
It’s the economy, stupid…
Quite the wreckage, huh? 17 seats down, a host of future stars put to the sword, and the Prime Minister…
