Barometer
High commodity Nickel trading was suspended this week after prices rose to over $100,000 per tonne – double its previous…
Me time
I think it was when she leaned forward and balanced on one leg that Barbara Hannigan jumped the shark. It…
Convertibles
The earliest cars were technically convertibles because the technology to fit a roof did not exist. Now the dedicated retractable…
The artful todger
Mikey (Simon Rex) first appears striding down a road in utterly wrecked jeans and shirt. He is carrying nothing and…
Letters
Unintended consequences Sir: The West has got it wrong when it comes to putting a stranglehold on Vladimir Putin (‘Putin’s…
The head in the bed
Fifty years since The Godfather’s release, Thomas W. Hodgkinson revisits the film’s most unforgettable scene
Wild life
Kenya During Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 I got a close look at Moscow’s troops and their kit. These…
Portrait of the week
Home President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine addressed a packed House of Commons by video, echoing Winston Churchill by declaring that…
Low life
I thought, or anyway hoped, that once I’d finished the chemotherapy I would spring back to vitality. Seven weeks on…
The making of a murderer
Were it not for an event on the night of 14 April 1865, John Wilkes Booth would be remembered, if…
Merlin’s stones
When it comes to Stonehenge, we are like children continually asking why and never getting a conclusive answer. There are…
The lady vanishes
How to review a book that pokes fun at critics? When the protagonist of María Gainza’s Portrait of an Unknown…
Diary
Central to the question of whether or not Ukraine can survive as an independent state is that of re-supply, not…
A magical epic
When the first volume of Marlon James’s Dark Star trilogy appeared in 2019, it was quickly recognised as a masterly…
After net zero
For years British energy policy has been an exercise in wishful thinking. We’ve been living in a fantasy world in…
From the Gauls to the Gilets Jaunes
Philip Hensher is enthralled by Graham Robb’s evocative new history of France
Moscow Notebook
Things fall apart. Moscow friends call to say that I have to urgently send my 19-year-old son out of Russia.…
Can Boris get the Saudis to pump more oil?
The oil price is up by more than 40 per cent since the start of the year. It is being…
