Triumph of the spirit
From ‘A moral test’, 2 March 1918: The nation, in spite of all the silly talk about our war aims…
The ageing rock stars who go on and on
Ageing rockers The Rolling Stones announced their first live shows for five years. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards (both 74), Charlie…
Tories who side with Labour on the customs union will be rebelling over a fantasy
Jeremy Corbyn wants Britain to ‘stay in a customs union’, according to the BBC. The phrase does not make sense.…
The Tory divide that May must bridge
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Every time Conservative Leavers speak up demanding a clean break…
The word ‘extremist’ has lost all meaning
A few years ago, in these pages, Matthew Parris defined Ukip as a party of extremists. Perhaps one of his…
It’s not all Twitter mobs – the internet can be a force for good
Few readerships of any intelligent national magazine will be more alive to the perils and downsides of 21st–century cyber-life than…
The all give and no take of US taxes
Last week, the New York Times ran a very un-New-York-Times-y article, ‘Resentment Grows Over Who Gets Health Care Aid’. It…
Running a bank’s tough. That’s no reason to start handing capital back
A mixed bag of annual results from the big banks. RBS, still 73 per cent owned by the taxpayer, recorded…
Me! Me! #MeToo! How Hollywood hijacked feminism
This is the Time’s Up Oscars, the first one where the #MeToo movement is a major player, and no one…
It takes more than a Time’s Up badge to be a feminist
I have not trusted a celebrity activist since 2014, when I read the headline ‘Angelina Jolie and William Hague tackle…
What is Putin’s endgame in Syria?
Familiar, depressing images emerge from Ghouta in Syria: rows of tiny white shrouds, children killed in relentless airstrikes, makeshift hospitals,…
Blue pill-pushers: Why is Viagra being marketed to young men?
In September last year, official figures showed a startling rise in the number of young British men turning up at…
Italians aren’t fascists. They’re angry about immigration
Ravenna Amid relentless propaganda about Italy being in the grip of fascism, Italians go to the polls on Sunday. It…
Why Evelyn Waugh, Lewis Carroll and the Romans loved Otmoor
‘Don’t sit down too long my duck, you might be doing nothing,’ reads the inscription memorialising Barbara Joan Austin (4…
Biography is a thoroughly reprehensible genre
I saw a biopic about Morecambe and Wise recently. The actors impersonating the comedians were not a patch on the…
From Louis XIV to the Shah of Iran: celebrities under the surgeon’s knife
Powerful memoirs by such eloquent doctors as Oliver Sacks, Atul Gawande, Henry Marsh, Gabriel Weston and Paul Kalanithi have whipped…
Be a spy like me, Charlotte Bingham’s father advises
That there’s a direct correlation between sex and spying is probably Ian Fleming’s fault. Hard to think of Bond without…
How a 14th-century Arab thinker influenced Ronald Reagan’s fiscal policy
At a press conference in October 1981, Ronald Reagan quoted Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) in support of what is known…
Dying buddleias on railway lines are what excite the new nature writer
A parliament of owls. A gaggle of geese. A convocation of eagles. But what is the generic term for the…
You deserve a prize if you manage to finish Jim Crace’s latest novel
This remorselessly slow-moving, hazily allegorical drama about ageing and xenophobia is Jim Crace’s 12th book, and the first to appear…
Alastair Campbell’s mix of football and terrorism makes for an accomplished thriller
Alastair Campbell is a man of many parts. Journalist, spin doctor extraordinaire, diarist and now novelist. For this, his third…
Louise Levene meets the tormented queen of flamenco, who bewitched Dali & Peter Sellers
A frail old woman sits alone on a chair on a darkened stage. There are flowers in her hair. She…
The strangely unique vision of Leonard Rosoman
Leonard Rosoman is not a well-known artist these days. Many of us will, however, be subliminally familiar with his mural…
I didn’t realise Petra was an ad for Merkel’s immigration policy: Civilisations reviewed
Most of the history I know and remember comes from my inspirational prep school teacher Mr Bradshaw. History was taught…
‘We’re using the same Aga and Belfast sink as Jill Archer’: how Radio 4 made Home Front
It feels like a long time since the launch of Home Front on Radio 4 back in June 2014, retracing…
