Why I’m standing by an old enemy
Most people won’t have heard of Selina Todd. The only reason I had was because some years ago the BBC…
We’re all the worse for drink
I’m not one of these teetotallers who frowns on people who imbibe, like an angsty ex-smoker who petulantly swats away…
How to be a man
The river of death has brimmed his banks And England’s far and Honour’s a name But the voice of…
The most sinister thing about Huawei may be how clean it is
I first wrote about the risks and rumours around Huawei — and made bad jokes about its name — in…
The whole of China is in an eerie state of shutdown
Shanghai ‘Do you want me to scan your temperature?’ asks the receptionist, brandishing an infrared thermometer. Arriving at my hotel…
Big Ben
The debate over whether Big Ben should bong to mark Brexit isn’t the first time the famous bell has caused…
Dresden: The Fire and the Darkness
Dresden defined the horror of war: revenge and cold-blooded murder. It still does, says Christopher Priest
The sound of Brum
Those who conduct the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra may not be aware that musicians fill in a form after…
Proper horror
anna asMany of our favourite folk tales have lost much of their original Gothic horror in later versions. By contrast,…
Asia’s ancient feuds
The mutual animosity of the Far East Asian nations can strike some as baffling, given their shared history and cultures,…
Nothing to see here
Anyone reading Clement Knox’s history of seduction for salacious entertainment is likely to be disappointed: it contains no mention of…
Snowbound isolation
In my twenties I once visited a lonely spot among the western Himalayas called Zhuldok in the Suru valley. Politically…
Run for your life
Lydia and Luca are hiding in the shower room of their home while 16 members of her family are murdered.…
The great leveller
In the middle of the last century, Robert Collison, one of the founders of the Society of Indexers, addressed himself…
Propaganda wars
Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian major-general blown up by the US over the New Year, will have seen himself arrested by…
The negativity bias
Negativity has a power over us. You know how it is. One bad thing can ruin your whole day, even…
My family the Macbeths
Ismail Kadare is a kind of lapidary artist who carves meaning and pattern into the rocky mysteries of his native…
Clive the poet
Clive James (1939-2019), in the much-quoted words of a New Yorker profile, was a brilliant bunch of guys. One of…
