Fighting fit: Dominic Raab on karate kicks, cabinet unity and his Brexit strategy
At a dinner in the Irish embassy in London last November, Dominic Raab believed he was on the brink of…
The upsides of dementia: Forgetfulness can be a blessing
My 91-year-old father-in-law has always had a terror of hospitals. This dates from his time as a Royal Marine when,…
Why Ceausescu’s 1978 state visit was far more humiliating than Trump’s ever could be
The Queen has seldom had more holes in a state banquet seating plan. The leader of the opposition, the shadow…
Rod Liddle: Tunnelling my way into Gaza
I’m meant to be peering into a tunnel hacked out by Hamas a few hundred metres from Gaza City into…
Selfie-surveillance: Who needs Big Brother when we constantly film ourselves?
Did you see the Welsh Tory MP David Davies and a pro-Brexit protester arguing outside parliament, pointing cameras at one…
How Rwanda became an oasis of liberal Islam
Kigali, Rwanda To most outsiders, Rwanda is still synonymous with genocide. Nearly a million killed in 100 days; almost three…
From Amazon to Waitrose: how do companies get their names?
Poor Mr Bergstresser. He put up the money to start the financial reporting company but his name wasn’t as snappy…
Toy theatres on the stage: the set designs of Maurice Sendak
I must have seen hundreds of opera productions in my time. Out of these, hardly any made a lasting impression…
Moon walks with the Romantic poets
Several years ago, I was interviewing the garden writer and designer Sarah Raven at her home in Sussex when a…
Gen Xers v. Millennials: White, by Bret Easton Ellis, reviewed
Q: What’s worse than listening to someone ranting hysterically about Donald Trump? A: Listening to Bret Easton Ellis ranting hysterically…
The London I loved: nostalgia for a dirty old town
All cities are shapeshifters, but London is special. London is a palimpsest of places gone but not lost. Even as…
Transforming Goosefish into Monkfish: branding’s slippery secrets
We live in a logic-obsessed world, from computer modelling of the economy to businesses run by spreadsheets. But we also…
My fictional Abimael Guzmàn turned out to be eerily accurate
Few Peruvians today are interested in ‘the Shining Path years’, which left no traces besides 70,000 mutilated bodies and a…
The desolate beauty of the Thames Estuary
We ought to cherish the haunted landscape of the Thames Estuary while we can. The grey hulks of old power…
Greece is the word for the New Yorker’s Comma Queen
Mary Norris’s book about her love affair with Greece and the Greek language starts with a terrific chapter about alphabets.…
Quentin Tarantino on how spaghetti westerns shaped modern cinema
The movie that made me consider filmmaking, the movie that showed me how a director does what he does, how…
British surrealism at its most remarkable and nightmarish
Holding the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936 was a coup for the British avant-garde, putting newbie surrealists such…
What would you do if you were a Syrian migrant?
‘Put yourself in their shoes,’ says Zahra Mackaoui, a British-Lebanese journalist who has been following the stories of refugees from…
Igor Levit’s Goldbergs were transcendental
Igor Levit has rapidly achieved cult status, as he certainly deserves. He has already reached the stage where he can…
Pam Tanowitz’s Four Quartets is a revelation
T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets is full of music and movement. The players, such as they are, slip, slide, shake, tumble,…
The quiet genius of Posy Simmonds, Hogarth’s heir
‘It’s no use at all,’ says Posy Simmonds in mock despair, holding up her hands. ‘I can’t tell my left…
Deeply unpleasant and thrilling: Viagra Boys make Primal Scream look antiseptic
May was a cruel month for those middle-aged liberals who treasure their old alternative rock heroes. There was Morrissey, appearing…
Good hats – shame about the film: Sunset reviewed
Sunset is French-Hungarian writer-director Laszlo Nemes’s follow-up to his astonishing Oscar-winning debut, Son of Saul. This time round the film…
Bog-standard spy mystery with a gimmicky appeal: Anna at the Dorfman Theatre reviewed
Arts Council England takes money from almost all of us and spends it on culture for almost none of us.…
Earth dying in five billion years I can deal with, but not a world-weary Brian Cox
When you see the opening caption ‘4.6 billion years ago’, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’re watching a programme…
