The snake-oil salesmen who prey on schizophrenics
Schizophrenia is the psychiatric illness about which the most misconceptions abound. It’s not so much the ‘negative’ symptoms that cause…
The sinister strains of English folk music
With public life increasingly a din of personalised ringtones and phone chatter, we crave silence. Acoustic ecologists speak of ‘ear…
Pigeons are plucky and loyal — so don’t go poisoning them in the park
Growing up as a rootless army brat in bases home and abroad, I would listen in appalled delight to my…
Entertaining Iris Murdoch – for months on end
If you know your Peter Conradi from your Peter J. Conradi, you’ll also know that the former is foreign editor…
Haunting and hallucinatory: hospital poems from Hugo Williams
Hugo Williams’s wryly candid reports from the front lines of sex and family life are a perennial delight. Often timeless,…
How does today’s world compare with Orwell’s nightmare vision?
Apart from a passionate relationship with the common toad, what do George Orwell and David Attenborough have in common? H.G.…
Geoff Dyer on the poetry of motels
It’s to be expected. You take photographs in order to document things — Paris in the case of Eugène Atget…
Still reliably fab: Toy Story 4 reviewed
Nearly 25 years on from its immaculate birth, Toy Story — like Wagner’s Ring, like John Updike’s Rabbit novels —…
What Mary Wollstonecraft writes about motherhood is still so relevant
Walking into Fingal’s Cave, after scrambling across the rocks to reach it from the landing stage where the boat from…
Enveloping and gorgeous: Cate Le Bon reviewed
The last time Bikini Kill played in London was in a room that now serves as the restaurant of a…
Oodles of fun – but unfair on climate sceptics: Kill Climate Deniers reviewed
Kill Climate Deniers is a provocative satire by Australian theatre-activist David Finnigan. The title sounds misanthropic and faintly deranged but…
Girls will love it – and there’s just enough eye candy for boys: Big Little Lies reviewed
Six hundred and thirty years ago, Chaucer revealed in ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale’ that what women really want is…
Remarkable and powerful – you see her joining the old masters: Paul Rego reviewed
In 1965 a journalist asked Paula Rego why she painted. ‘To give a face to fear,’ she replied (those were…
Can an Offenbach production be too silly? Garsington’s Fantasio reviewed
The tears of a clown have often fallen on fertile operatic ground. Think of Rigoletto and I Pagliacci; or The…
After the week I’ve just had will my liver ever recover?
Bellamy’s and Oswald’s are the two best restaurants in London. They are owned by two friends of mine — both…
Up close and personal with Thomas Hardy
I walked in out of the rain, dripping, and sat down beside the fire on the primitive high-backed settle. ‘Is…
This prospective lodger was clearly barking mad
‘Take a seat,’ said the prospective lodger as we stood in my dining room. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand,’ I…
In praise of geldings
Boris Johnson, Remainers might like to be reminded, does sometimes change his mind under pressure. Some years ago, as editor…
Bridge
Here we go again. The ninth European Bridge Championships are upon us, this time taking place in Istanbul. Hundreds of…
Fortune’s wheel
The elite tournament at Stavanger in Norway has resulted in yet another victory for the world champion Magnus Carlsen. The…
no. 559
Black to play. This position is from Grischuk-Anand, Altibox (Armageddon game), Stavanger 2019. How does Black break White’s resistance? Answers…
Talking heads
In Competition No. 3103 you were invited to submit a Shakespearean soliloquy delivered by one of the contenders for the…
2413: Sign here please
The unclued lights are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer. Across 11 Oil-well cap adjusted as ornamentation (10, two…
to 2410: Alphabetical Jigsaw
First prize Susan Edouard, Bexhill-on-SeaRunners-up Joan Sutton, Canterbury, Kent; Harry Duff, Machen, Caerphilly Got something to add? Join the discussion…
Is this a turning point in the culture war?
Something rather wonderful happened last week for those of us who have been the victims of a public shaming —…
