Gatekeeper anxiety: a new disease for our times
A general election looms, the outcome could go almost any way and those who normally offer themselves as experts are…
Revealed: the press regulator’s leaked guidelines on Islamophobia
If truthful reporting risks increasing tension between communities, should it still be published? Do journalists have a social duty to…
The press regulator must not turn into a religious thought police
Next year I will begin my fifth decade as a working journalist. As a writer, as an executive — and…
In defence of trophy hunting
‘Why would anyone want to destroy something so beautiful, then stuff its poor lifeless body to keep as some kind…
Moving to the country for a better life was a huge mistake
As newlyweds in our late twenties, my husband and I decided to move from a crime-ridden (if trendy) London postcode…
Algeria reminds us that the current of colonisation doesn’t always run just one way
As you glide in to land at the airport outside Algiers, the landscape resembles that of Tuscany: a coastal plain…
The unparalleled entertainment – and heartbreaking reality – of watching a court hearing
‘Barristers’ speeches vanish quicker than Chinese dinners, and even the greatest victory in court rarely survives longer than the next…
What made Lucian Freud so irresistible to women?
Amedeo Modigliani thought Nina Hamnett, muse, painter, memoirist, had ‘the best tits in Europe’. She fell 40 feet from a…
Was there some Freudian symbolism in Lucian’s botanical paintings?
In early paintings such as ‘Man with a Thistle’ (1946), ‘Still-life with Green Lemon’ (1946) and ‘Self-portrait with Hyacinth Pot’…
How Britain conned the US into entering the war
In June 1940, MI6’s new man, Bill Stephenson, ‘a figure of restless energy… wedged into the shell of a more…
Crazy nannies and missing children: the latest crime fiction reviewed
Madeline Stevens’s debut thriller, Devotion (Faber, £12.99), might more appropriately have been titled ‘Desire’. It’s a riff on that old…
The elegance and humour of Neville Cardus
As a fully paid-up, old-school cricket tragic, I astound myself that I have read almost no Neville Cardus. How can…
In praise of Thomas Graham, unsung hero of the Peninsular War
Why does a man join the army? The answer was probably more obvious in the 18th century than now, but…
It takes a former drug dealer to explain the global narcotics scene
In the early 2000s, Yekaterinburg was in the grip of a major heroin problem. For Yevgeny Roizman, ‘Russia’s vigilante king’,…
The Dambusters raid was great theatre — but almost entirely pointless
The great bomber pilot Guy Gibson had a black labrador with a racist name. This shouldn’t matter, except Gibson loved…
Carry on up the Zambezi
I loved this book so much I was appalled. Why, when bookshops are stacked full of memoirs by authors who…
On photography, shrines and Maradona: Geoff Dyer’s Neapolitan pilgrimage
At the Villa Pignatelli in Naples there is an exhibition by Elisa Sighicelli: photographs of bits and pieces of antiquity…
Why 80 per cent of young people in this Macedonian town have turned to posting ‘fake news’
It’s such a relief to turn on the radio and hear the voice of Neil MacGregor. That reasoned authority, his…
I have no clue what’s going on, but can’t wait to find out: BBC1’s The Capture reviewed
How did the police ever solve any crimes before CCTV? That was the question which sprang to mind watching the…
A decorative pageant that would appeal to civic grandees: The Secret River reviewed
The Secret River opens in a fertile corner of New South Wales in the early 1800s. William, a cockney pauper…
Why has figurative painting become fashionable again?
The figure is back. Faces stare, bodies sprawl, fingers swipe, mums clutch, hands loll. The Venice Biennale was full of…
Why did the Soviets not want us to know about the pianist Maria Grinberg?
Only four women pianists have recorded complete cycles of the Beethoven piano sonatas: Maria Grinberg, Annie Fischer, H. J. Lim…
Great title – shame about the songs: Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell reviewed
Grade: B+ Get the razor blades out, Ms Misery is back. Only the truly affluent can immerse themselves in such…
Is this film saying relationships between teachers and kids are OK? Scarborough reviewed
Scarborough is a small British film but it will give you a very big headache. Its subject is teachers who…
My soulmate Brian Sewell
Romy Somerset is the sweetest, nicest young girl in London. She’s also my goddaughter and I remember, during her christening…
