Letters: Why the hatred towards independent schools?
Fawning over China Sir: In reading your recent leading article on Huawei (‘Red-handed’, 2 February), I feel I should point out…
The genius of Titania McGrath
I am in a small minority in turning off the news when it is not about Brexit. The slow, agonising…
The Tories have never been less prepared for a general election
‘What would a Conservative manifesto say on Brexit?’ Many Tories consider this question a slam-dunk argument against an early election.…
Trump is divisive. He splits his opposition perfectly
Washington, DC Donald Trump, the unity president — doesn’t sound right, does it? Trump is, we know, divisive. Under his…
Arthritis, nerve pain and chronic fatigue: my life with Lyme disease
Some medical experts claim that Lyme disease is worse than cancer. It’s not a competition, but I do know one…
The Nissan move shows Britain is losing its competitive edge
Has ‘Jay’ Powell gone wobbly, or does he know something we don’t? That was the question being asked after the…
Carmageddon: The future is catching up with the motor giants
When Nissan announced it would not, after all, produce its new X-Trail in Sunderland, this was reported as proof of…
Europeans can’t understand the existential drive behind the British wish to leave the EU
What can the EU do to help the Britons out of their Brexit quagmire? Until very recently, the answer would…
The mystery of the raided horses
‘Can I get you a cup of tea?’ asked the lady as she sat beside me in the caravan. The…
‘If I get an adrenaline rush, something’s gone wrong’: An interview with Free Solo’s Alex Honnold
My husband, usually a cool customer, watched Free Solo from behind his fingers, sometimes jumping up from the sofa and…
Dating apps are full of ‘woke’ profiles – no wonder we’re no longer having sex
I interviewed a prominent 1970s women’s liberationist recently and ended up discussing the sexual culture of her political heyday. ‘Everyone…
The financial logic behind HS2 is collapsing. It’s time to pull the plug
No one is in any doubt about the problem facing Britain’s railways. Over the past decade, rail fares have risen…
Here in freezing Chicago we’re secretly rooting for global warming
One of the few pleasures of advancing age is that, no matter how awful some looming catastrophe may be, you…
The teeth-chattering joys of cold-water swimming
The woman on the path has come to a dead stop. She’d been shuffling along in that bunched-up posture we…
Fishing for meaning in vanished Doggerland
Somewhere deep in the water-thick layers of Time Song, Julia Blackburn says, funnily, that in Danish, ‘the word for book…
An island’s dark secrets: The Tempest, by Steve Sem-Sandberg, reviewed
‘I should not have gone back to the island but I did it all the same.’ So begins the Swedish…
Kristen Roupenian’s debut short stories fulfil all expectations
Kristen Roupenian’s debut collection, You Know You Want This (Cape, £12.99), comes hotly anticipated. Her short story, ‘Cat Person’, went…
Shakespeare on the beach: Oh I Do Like to Be…, by Marie Phillips, reviewed
The phrase ‘Shakespeare comedy’ is an oxymoron with a long pedigree, one which perhaps stretches back to the late 16th…
Treasures from Ancient Egypt’s wastepaper baskets
In 2016, after some unseemly back-and-forth between the Commons and Lords, it was decided that Acts of Parliament should no…
When kissing in public carried a death sentence
I once threw Tony Parker’s Lighthouse across the fo’c’sle of a ship at sea when I read that his characters…
Travelling by train – with Anna Karenina
Any memoir is a form of double-entry book-keeping, in which what has been lost is reckoned against what has been…
How I tried – and spectacularly failed – to assist my mother’s suicide
‘If your time ain’t come, not even a doctor can kill you’ — so goes the proverb that best echoes…
Twilight in the bayou: The New Iberia Blues, by James Lee Burke, reviewed
The king of crime fiction doesn’t need a crown and sceptre. Every page proclaims his majesty. James Lee Burke has…
The day I woke up… to hear that only Tracey Thorn loved me
It’s unusual for musicians to become writers. The trajectory of yearning is meant to be the other way around. When…
Do we really need to read Isaiah Berlin’s every last word?
This is a fascinating example of a small genre, in which the author decides at an early stage in his…
