Puzzle no. 675
White to play and mate in one. I found this puzzle online, composed by someone with the pseudonym ‘Illion’. I…
The wrong premise
Coronavirus may have fallen out of the news cycle but the threat of the virus has certainly not passed. Britain…
Diary
I’m on a book tour which involves 65 speeches in 60 days in Britain, Washington, Philadelphia, Virginia, Mexico, California and…
Let there be life
Philip Hensher finds this year’s Booker shortlist more concerned with serious world issues than vivid characterisation
Barometer
Wrong place, wrong time The name of the village of Nelson, north of Cardiff, was described as ‘problematic’ in an…
Israel has been spared Sally Rooney
I have not watched the BBC’s new period drama Ridley Road because I knew it would be impossible for the…
Nonny nonny no
As a writer who obsesses over the right title to grab a target audience, seeing a book subtitled ‘Song Collectors…
Witching times
In the three centuries between 1450 and 1750 in Europe it is estimated that up to 100,000 women were burned,…
Doors to the past
E.H. Carr’s 1961 book What is History? has cast a long shadow over the discipline. I recall being assigned to…
The end of the affair
The story of the Cambridge spies has been served up so often that it has become stale — too detailed,…
We are all mysteries
‘Reading is a celebration of the mystery of ourselves,’ according to Elizabeth Strout, who writes to help readers understand themselves…
Hustlers and hoodlums
For modern America, Harlem is a once maligned, now much vaunted literary totem, which continues to occupy a gargantuan place…
The grandest dame
Eileen Atkins belongs to a singular generation of British actresses, among them Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Sian Phillips and Vanessa…
To 2525: Prime Times
The [5 Down] MILESTONE puzzle number 2525 is the product of PRIME numbers 101 TIMES 5 TIMES 5, equivalently the…
Feminism has failed us
I’ve lost count of how many seminars I’ve had to sit through on Diversity & Inclusion, how many times I’ve…
Politicians need to ditch the faux celebrity act
There’s an old adage which says that politics is “show business for ugly people”; the idea being that if you’re not attractive…
Why Covid means the big state is back
History suggests that when the state expands in a crisis, it doesn’t go back to its pre-crisis level once the…
Why is the National Trust waging war against its members?
The National Trust culture war has just stepped up a gear. Ahead of the Trust’s AGM on 30 October, the…
Daniel Andrews and Victorian Labor: devious, dangerous and duplicitous
Victorian taxpayers are supposed to believe the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, is pure as the driven snow. We are supposed…
Cambridge’s transgender TERF wars have gone too far
What is a witch? How do we spot witches? And how might we drum up the courage to talk to…
Ex Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali converts to Catholicism
Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester and one of the best-known Anglican clerics, could be ordained as a Catholic…
ScoMo doesn’t need to go to Glasgow. I grew up there and can tell him all he needs to know
I grew up close to Glasgow on the River Clyde, and from our kitchen window you could predict the weather…
The mendacity of Priti Patel’s immigration Bill
You are a journalist, a satirist, a campaigner, an opposition politician. For years you work to create the flash of…
Macron may well win. But Macronism is dead
President Emmanuel Macron was in an expansive mood this week as he commandeered the splendid beaux arts Grand Palais in…
