Theresa May’s Brexit strategy has humiliated Britain
The government has lost the ability to run the country. It is no longer in charge of its own destiny,…
Brexiteers and Remainers can’t both be right about Bercow’s ruling
Has there been a Brexit disaster? It depends on your point of view. When John Bercow ruled that the Prime…
Speaker-speak: the maddening rhetoric of John Bercow
Much has recently been written about the incumbent Commons Speaker, from (vigorously denied) allegations of bullying to (less vigorously denied)…
When will Britain stop poaching the world’s medics and train our own instead?
For years, Britain has been failing to train enough doctors and has been importing them instead. This has been a…
‘The Islamic State will never die’: their territory is gone but the jihadis are always with us
Beirut As I write, Isis is still holding out on a few hundred square yards of dirt in the village…
We thought New Zealand was safe from extremism. We were wrong
In a blink, everything has changed and yet nothing has changed. Life goes on. The long, hot days of a…
Why do we love The Archers, when all the characters are loathsome?
OK, Archers fans out there. All five million of you. Ask yourselves a straightforward question. Why on earth do you…
A viral hit: how the Christchurch killer weaponised internet culture
‘Remember, lads: Subscribe to PewDiePie.’ With these words, the killer began broadcasting his slaughter of 50 worshippers at two mosques…
The triumphant return of the British beaver
I know a magical West Country woodland where a sunlit stream meanders through the great oaks, with a series of…
How Diderot’s pleas to end despotism fell on deaf ears in Russia
Denis Diderot (1713–84) is the least commemorated of the philosophes. Calls for his remains to be moved to the Panthéon…
Days of the locust: our continuing battle with an ancient plague
Carried on monsoon winds across the Red Sea, vast swarms of desert locusts have posed a deadly threat to the…
Writing as revenge: Memories of the Future, by Siri Hustvedt, reviewed
Why are people interested in their past? One possible reason is that you can interact with it, recruiting it as…
A Mojave desert mystery: The Other Americans, by Laila Lalami, reviewed
Late one night, on a dimly lit stretch of highway in a small town in the Californian Mojave desert, an…
Why are we so obsessed with Jack the Ripper, but care so little for his victims?
Before she was the subject of true-crime mythologising, Catherine Eddowes made her living from it, selling ballads based on real-life…
The short, happy life of the long playing record
On 19 June 1948, the modern LP was unveiled at a press conference by the Columbia Records president Ted Wallerstein,…
Brexit can be surprisingly thrilling, as Alan Judd’s latest spy novel demonstrates
The long gestation period of Brexit has allowed authors to plan and write and publish novels in time for the…
The Englishman who saved Japan’s cherry blossoms
Between 1639 and 1853, seeds and scions of flowering cherry trees travelled across Japan to Edo (present-day Tokyo). Each came…
How Polynesia came to be inhabited is still one of the world’s great mysteries
Later this month, a boat builder from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia will fly to the Russian city of Sochi to…
Further adventures of a dysfunctional family: Reasons to be Cheerful, by Nina Stibbe, reviewed
My ex-dentist resembled a potato wearing a Patek Phillipe. In those precious moments between the golf course and the cruise…
The queen of England who never was: the life of the Empress Matilda
The Empress Matilda, mother of the Plantagenet dynasty, is the earliest queen of England who never was; by rights she…
Missive from a living fossil: Little Boy, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, reviewed
In his adopted city of San Francisco, the poet, publisher and painter Lawrence Ferlinghetti is venerated to levels nearing those…
In the pavilion of fun: Bowlaway, by Elizabeth McCracken, reviewed
Bowlaway, Elizabeth McCracken’s first novel in 18 years, is a great American candy-colour Buddenbrooks, a multi-generational epic spanning almost 100…
The rise and rise of the holographic tour
In March 1968, Frank Zappa released an album called We’re Only in it for the Money. Presumably, then, Zappa —…
Full of lovely paintings that might lead you astray: The Renaissance Nude reviewed
Early in the 16th century, Fra Bartolomeo painted an altarpiece of St Sebastian for the church of San Marco in…
Watch Tom Hiddleston ruin Pinter’s finest play
No menace, no Venice. This new production of Pinter’s Betrayal is set on a bare stage with scant regard for…
