A man with a plan
This memoir from Sir Richard Needham, 6th Earl of Kilmorey, businessman and former Northern Ireland minister, has a frank opening:…
Diary
I was born and raised in Sheffield, a proud steel-making city which drew much of its energy from a sense…
In the thick of it
When the shrill air raid sirens blared their familiar warning cries over the city at 6.01 p.m. on 29 December…
The turf
In the first such case for 20 years, former rider Freddy Tylicki, paralysed and wheelchair-bound since his mount Nellie Dean…
Northern lights
It’s not everyone’s idea of fun, a trip to Huddersfield in the depths of November. But as any veteran of…
Real life
‘Did you hear it?’ said a friend of mine, red-faced with the flush of a piece of news she couldn’t…
Tiger feat
Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi is a complicated organism. The action starts in southern India where we meet a…
Based
My grown-up friends don’t use based in its new slangy sense, so I asked Veronica (whom I still think of…
Carlsen’s breakthrough
Game 6 of the Carlsen–Nepomniachtchi world championship match was one for the ages. After draws in the first five games,…
The final showdown
The good citizens of Stevenage would be well advised to prepare extensively for the likely open-top bus parade of their…
Soho consolations
Soho is so gilded nowadays that even drug addicts look down on it. The wasteland without must match the wasteland…
Eternity in an hour
Growing up on a farm outside Lima, I was aware that indigenous Peruvians did not understand time in the same…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My mother-in-law has remarried and now lives in South America. She has a large family with nieces, grandchildren, godchildren,…
‘I am not able to answer your question’
Hermione Eyre talks to an irascible Paolo Sorrentino about therapy, Vesuvius and why he kept things simple and easy for his latest film
Omicron variants
Time to settle the Great Omicron Question. First, there is no word omikron (and no c) in ancient Greek. Second,…
Culture clash
Apart from what the title tells us, these stories are about a fundamental difference in cultures. Huma Qureshi writes like…
Mistletoe
Give us a snog. Pucker up at the Christmas party. Kiss me quick at the Nativity play. Will you be…
Sinister accidents abound
The old adage that everyone has a novel in them has a new version: anyone can write a thriller. Celebrity…
Letters
Flood relief Sir: In my lifetime there have been at least two major flood emergencies when the armed forces have…
A right old song and dance
All the questions around Britney Spears can be condensed into this one: who should we blame? For a long time,…
Portrait of the week
Home Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, said that the Omicron variant of coronavirus was spreading by community transmission in ‘multiple…
A principled pragmatist
A headline in the Mail on Sunday, taken up eagerly by the BBC’s Todayprogramme, claimed recently: ‘The SAS is getting…
Let’s not become Scotland
The Law Commission has published a string of recommendations following its recent consultation on changes to hate-crime laws in England…
High life
New York Imagine a European country today in which a newspaper in its most populous city launches a mendacious project…
