The mystical hold of the 1990s over Gen Z
At some point during the past decade and a half, it was decided that the 1990s were a golden age.…
A Brigadoon better than most of us ever hoped to see
The village of Brigadoon rises from the Scotch mists once every 100 years, and revivals of Lerner and Loewe’s musical…
Alien: Earth is wantonly disrespectful to the canon
I once spent a delightful weekend in Madrid with the co-producer of Alien. His name was David Giler (now dead,…
The oppression of Sally Rooney
Almost a decade ago the Irish academic Liam Kennedy published a tremendous book with the title Unhappy the Land: the…
The drama of an Irish supermarket car park
The woman pushing a wheelchair was causing such a rumpus in the supermarket that whichever aisle I was in I…
Owning an Airbnb is hell
I know it can be difficult to have sympathy for anybody who owns a holiday let, but for me and…
There are glimmers of hope for Iraq’s Christians
It is 43˚C in Erbil, which a friend here describes as ‘cool’. Unlike my first visit in 2015, when Isis…
When national flags are a warning sign
I don’t quite see the point of flying Union flags in Tower Hamlets, or complaining about it when the council…
Why your weight loss jab is ballooning in price
‘A friend of mine who’s slightly overweight, to put it mildly, went to a drug store in London,’ Donald Trump…
Trump has given Zelensky cause for hope
On Volodymyr Zelensky’s last visit to the White House, he brought a gift: a championship belt from one of Ukraine’s…
Rachel Reeves’s self-defeating attack on British racing
Few British traditions can claim as long a history as racing. The first races thought to have taken place in…
Where have all the upper-class Tories gone?
A currently fashionable conservatism is militantly against Ukraine and, by more cautious implication, pro-Russia. We who disagree are, I quote…
Putin’s trap: how Russia plans to split the western alliance
Though you wouldn’t know from the smiles around the table at the White House this week, a trap has been…
Nigel Farage is banking on a political sea change
Nigel Farage is adept at riding the currents of British politics. When he named Reform after the Canadian party in…
Don’t judge a book by its author
I am entombed, like Edgar Allan Poe’s prematurely buried man, listening through headphones to a contemporary Russian fugue for organ…
Portrait of the week: Ukraine talks, inflation rises and a new house for the Prince and Princess of Wales
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, joined President Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the…
The Seeds are primitive but magnificent
Plus: am I the only person who finds M.J. Lenderman’s voice whiny?
How many homes in England have air conditioning?
Suit cases Volodymyr Zelensky again failed to wear a suit and tie to a meeting at the White House, in…
Glorious: Good Night, Oscar, at the Barbican, reviewed
Good Night, Oscar is a biographical play about Oscar Levant, a famous pianist who was also a noted wit and…
Keep algorithms out of care homes
I manage a small, not-for-profit care home in Norfolk. We have tea rounds, hymn singing, hand-holding and staff who know…
My shoplifting shame
On reflection, a tradition of shelving many desirable goods within ready reach is extraordinary – especially because the premises in…
The masterpieces on your doorstep
I do not, if I can help it, catch a train to anywhere on a Sunday. Yet there I was…
I’ve had it with Anselm Kiefer
August is always a crap month for exhibitions in London. The collectors are elsewhere, the dealers are presumably hot on…
How Italy’s ‘new young’ party
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna The Feast of the Assumption began for me just after midnight with a WhatsApp message from my…
