Can May and Corbyn find a Brexit compromise?
Can Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn reach a satisfactory compromise on Brexit? The two leaders’ positions are not, in fact,…
Tweedy or Trainer: Which kind of Brexiteer are you?
‘Too tweedy? Goodness gracious me!’ Rory Stewart sounded startled. A contender for the Tory leadership, he was being interviewed by…
Feminism has succeeded – so why don’t we call it quits?
You would think that the British Film Institute’s sponsorship of a month-long festival celebrating some of the most memorable female…
Let’s face it, we’d steal China’s secrets if we could
On the matter of whether former defence secretary Gavin Williamson was the real ‘H’ in Line of Duty, I admit…
Train your brain: How to keep your mind young
‘Beep!’ This is one of the most maddening computer games I’ve ever played. I’m tracking a flock of birds, and…
Prue Leith: When did the Samaritans lose their way?
In the past few weeks, on three separate occasions, I have met three different women who for years (one for…
‘Come on, cancel me’: An interview with Bret Easton Ellis
‘I grew up in LA where we all thought fame was a joke,’ says Bret Easton Ellis. ‘My class was…
Grouse moors have destroyed Britain’s natural heritage – so we must rewild them
Britain’s hunting estates were once beautiful. Walking through the New Forest, we can all appreciate how the purchase of land…
Home truths: Are nurseries damaging our children?
As any parent of young children will tell you, toddler groups exist as much for the adults as for the…
25 years off the booze has taught me three simple things
Have you noticed how nearly everyone in the media has won an award? Is there even such a thing as…
Windermere, a voyage into Swallows and Amazons
‘A love of boats and sailing is the surest of all passports to a happy life,’ wrote Arthur Ransome. Standing…
How to lose friends and alienate people: Richard Holbrooke was a past master
You may ask yourself, is it worth one of the best American non-fiction writers producing a book of just under…
The only thing that baffled Einstein was his own popularity
On 6 November 1919, at a joint meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Society, held at London’s…
Who needs psychogeography? Plume, by Will Wiles, reviewed
With his first novel about looking after an engineered wood floor, and a second novel about what it is like…
What really amused Queen Victoria? Dwarfs, giants and bearded women
The American dwarf ‘General’ Tom Thumb is only mentioned once in Lee Jackson’s encyclopaedic survey of Victorian mass entertainment, and…
London after the Great Fire: The King’s Evil, by Andrew Taylor, reviewed
The scene is London in 1667, the city recovering from the Great Fire the year before, with 80,000 people homeless…
Is there no end to the retelling of classical myths?
In the past few years there has been a flourishing of literary responses to the Trojan war. To mention a…
A hero of the Franco era: Lord of All the Dead, by Javier Cercas, reviewed
Who is a hero? Javier Cercas, in his 2001 novel Soldiers of Salamis, asked the question, searching for an anonymous…
How film fell for caliphs and slave girls
Most of Hollywood’s Arabian Nights fantasies are, of course, unadulterated tosh. The Middle East, wrote the American film critic William…
A magnificent work of art (but don’t worry if you miss the first half-hour): Small Island reviewed
Small Island, based on Andrea Levy’s novel about Jamaican migrants in Britain, feels like the world’s longest book review. We…
This concert proves it is time to take Michael Tippett seriously
In Oliver Soden’s new biography of Michael Tippett, he describes how Tippett wanted to open his Fourth Symphony with the…
The Holy Grail of concert-going: I Fagiolini deliver serious musicianship that never takes itself too seriously
We’ve all read the article. It does the rounds with the dispiriting regularity of an unwanted dish on a sushi…
Female contestants in Afghanistan’s X Factor are dicing with death
The cheering fans, the dramatic Hollywood-style drum rolls, the excitable host all sound just like The X Factor or The…
A mighty resurrection: Amazing Grace reviewed
Each December in Washington DC, the Kennedy Center Honors anoints five performing artists who have contributed to American life. In…
Would James Joyce have finished Ulysses without coloured pens?
The Mesopotamians wrote on clay and the ancient Chinese on ox bones and turtle shells. In Egypt, in about 1,800…
