Puzzle no. 632
White to play and win. E. Pogosjants, Shakhmaty v SSSR 1976. Promoting the a-pawn allows Black a perpetual check. Which…
Quite contrary
Frankly, it is rather hideous — but also quite wonderful, shimmering against the weak blue of a late November sky.…
A study in realpolitik
Barack Obama was famous for his rhetoric, but his achievements show just what a steely political operator he was too, says Sam Leith
Man of mystic sorrow
John Steinbeck didn’t believe in God — but he didn’t believe much in humanity either. When push came to shove,…
The power of the pamphlet
Researching the seditious literature of earlier periods is seldom suspenseful, pulse-quickening work. For every thrill of archival discovery, there are…
Anything but a quiet life
Kikuko Tsumura is a multi-prizewinning Japanese author whose mischievously deceptive new novel takes us into what purports to be the…
A Scottish Paradise
As every Italian schoolchild knows, The Divine Comedy opens in a supernatural dark wood just before sunrise on Good Friday…
Animal magic
J.K. Rowling has written a book for children — and you know what? It’s a charmer. The Ickabod(Hachette, £20) was…
Four disparate thinkers
How do you write a group biography of people who never actually formed a group? Such is the challenge Wolfram…
Poet on the brink
‘A matter that hurts me is that I have made many hundreds of people laugh, in various cities, during the…
‘It was like a survivors’ circle’
Michael Hann talks to Corey Taylor, front man of ‘the most revolting band in the world’, about PTSD, Donald Trump and life after alcoholism
Low life
I regained consciousness on a trolley in a recovery ward. A masked porter wheeled me from there back to my…
Real life
Pretty Man was a plump white pony in the forefront of a sad picture. The photograph showed the seizure by…
Bridge
Each November, Paula Leslie organises the Young Chelsea Women’s Teams — a fantastic event, attracting many of Europe’s best players…
Reasons why the 2020 presidential election is deeply puzzling
To say out-loud that you find the results of the 2020 presidential election odd is to invite derision. You must…
Why this Iranian assassination is all about Trump
The news that Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen ‘father of the bomb’ Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, met his end in a hail of…
The gamble Boris feels he must take
Both Boris Johnson and Robert Jenrick have used their media appearances today to try and calm Tory MPs after yesterday’s…
Italy is about to hijack the eurozone
There is still some debate about who came up with the adage that ‘if you owe the bank $100 that…
Ideological purity is a grave threat to the Tory party
One of the main reasons why the centre-right has been in the political ascendancy across the western world over the…
Where’s the diversity at the ABC when it’s only white people talking left wing dross?
Former Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane yesterday slammed the ABC for using too many white-skinned Leftists to present its news…
Daniel Andrews queer theory tyranny
While Christian Porter has delayed the introduction of the Religious Freedom Bill until 2021 due to COVID-19, Daniel Andrews is…
Carole Cadwalladr should now return her Orwell Prize
A small but significant event has just occurred. This morning the legal case between Arron Banks and the journalist Carole…
The great public policy Razzie awards
For the third year running, independent research undertaken by two philosophically opposed Right and Left think tanks — the Institute of…
What we know so far about the Oxford vaccine
It’s three for three as far as positive outcomes from Covid vaccine trials are concerned. But the announcement from AstraZeneca…
