Extreme pain, of the purest intensity, changes everything
Since my pulmonary embolism a couple of years ago, I have become something of a connoisseur of pain. The agony…
Falling US shares tell us only that investors were too excited in January
If you were the incoming or retiring chairman of the Federal Reserve, you might be quietly pleased to see stock…
This is the stock market crash we needed
Since the crash ten years ago, stock markets the world over have been steadily recovering. The Dow Jones, a bellwether…
Violent crime in Sweden is soaring. When will politicians act?
January was a particularly violent month in Sweden. A 63-year-old man was killed in Stockholm by a hand grenade lying…
Michael Moorcock: Why banning opioids has been a disaster for me
Returning to the United States a short while ago I received a stern talking to from an immigration officer. Why…
Jordan Peterson doesn’t go nearly far enough
Now that I seem to have become a prophet of doom, I wonder whether I should have been a guru…
17 reasons why we should love Brexit
‘But what are you going to do with the powers?’ the minister asked, while I negotiated devolution of powers to…
Is it okay to laugh at dwarfs?
You’re planning a party. You’ve hired the vaults of a former bank, Le Caprice is doing the catering, and a…
Abbaye Saint-Michel, a little corner of England that’s forever France
‘A little corner of England which is for ever France, irreclaimably French.’ That is how the Catholic priest Monsignor Ronald…
Are cruise liners the solution to the housing crisis?
Looking at the sketchbook of William Whitelock Lloyd, a soldier-artist who joined a P&O liner after surviving the Anglo-Zulu War,…
Lemons and pebbles are as important to Kettle’s Yard as the art
When I first visited Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, I was shown around by Jim Ede, its founder and creator. This wasn’t…
Channel 4 marked women’s suffrage with an episode of the Secret Life of Five-Year-Olds
To mark the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage — if a little oddly — Channel 4 on Tuesday brought us…
Yet another dud Un ballo in maschera: Opera North’s new production reviewed
A chaste act of adultery and a silent conversation: these are the encounters at the heart of Un ballo in…
Bold, in its way, but Ben Whishaw is ill-suited to Shakespeare: Julius Caesar reviewed
Nicholas Hytner’s new show is a modern-dress Julius Caesar, heavily cut and played in the round. It runs for two…
Devastating but also more involving than you’d ever think possible: Loveless reviewed
Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless is, indeed, devastatingly loveless, as well as devastatingly pitiless, which does not sound hopeful. Yet it is…
BBC Arabic’s version of Woman’s Hour is rather different to Radio 4’s
When the BBC’s Arabic-language network went out on air for the first time 80 years ago, on 3 January 1938,…
Rod Liddle finds his inner SJW listening to Justin Timberlake
Grade: B– Hey, here comes Justin, the ‘President of Pop’ and ‘one of the greatest all-around entertainers in the history…
Taki: Where’s Norman Mailer when you need him?
Gstaad For some strange reason there have been no #MeToo complaints around these parts. Some locals have grumbled about yours…
Seeing Nelson in a new light
I picked up my grandson from his mother’s flat and noticed the change in him the second I clapped eyes…
My horse is a psychopath — and you’d better believe it
Why do people find it so hard to believe that a horse can be a psychopath? Not an obvious, screaming…
Cold Comfort Farm comes to Kenya
Laikipia I woke with the breath of a leopard a few feet from me as I lay in my bed.…
Bridge
The England ladies trials, two weekends ago, were as exciting as ever, but also rather heartbreaking for me and my…
Chess on the Rock
The Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian has won first prize of £25,000 in the important Tradewise Masters which has just finished…
no. 492
White to play. This position is from Wang Hao-Howell, Gibraltar 2018. What opportunity did White overlook? Answers to me at…
Occasional verse
In Competition No. 3034 you were invited to provide a poem written by a poet laureate present or past on…
