Still giving peace a chance
Tibetans were once fabled warriors. Their empire, at the summit of its power in the eighth century, extended to northern…
Another challenge for Trump
James D. Zirin is an experienced litigator as well as the host of a popular television talkshow. In this provocative…
Day of infamy
On 7 December 1941, without declaration of war, 350 Japanese carrier-borne aircraft struck at the US Pacific Fleet at anchor…
Big skies and frozen wastes
We know our way around Raymond Carver’s blue-collar cityscapes and Updike’s urban angst and despair. Rick Bass opens a window…
And then there was one
After a long struggle to receive mainstream publication, Paul Auster’s first few novels were a genuinely significant contribution to American…
Satirising the artful Hoxha
Blood, they say, is quick on the knife in Albania, where Balkan-style revenge killings, known as giakmarrje (‘blood-takings’), settle ancient…
In hot water
It’s good to be back in Spook Street, home of the nation’s secret service. From a handful of locations across…
Whited sepulchre
Michelangelo’s Tomb for Pope Julius II: Genesis and Genius edited by Christoph Luitpold Frommel, translated by A. Lawrence Jenkens JrYale,…
Riding the storm
Clover Stroud opens her memoir with the crippling bout of post-natal depression that hit after the birth of her fourth…
Sins of the flesh
Bill Schutt has an excellent subject, and he explores it from a promising angle. Cannibalism has long interested zoologists, anthropologists,…
The great Norse soap opera
Norse myths are having a moment. Or should I say another moment; one of a long chain of moments, in…
Will Trump halt the hounding of UK and European banks? Don’t bet on it
President Donald Trump is demolishing his predecessor’s legacy as fast as he can sign executive orders, but one thing for…
This is not a strong government – so why isn’t the opposition opposing it?
‘For heaven’s sake, man, go!’ A week after the Brexit referendum, and that was David Cameron at the despatch box,…
Victims of hysteria
This week, 49,000 gay men were granted posthumous pardons. Had Harold Macmillan’s government taken notice of this magazine in 1957…
Domestic violence leave doesn’t fix the problem
ACTU President Ged Kearney last year took to the stage at the International Labor Organisation conference to make an impassioned…
Black gold
Last Wednesday, attentive readers may recall, Prime Minister Turnbull gave a Press Club presentation designed to re-start his government. It…
Revealed: how your taxes fund the 18c Fan Club
One of the most obvious features of the parliamentary inquiry into section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act has been…
The Nauru deal: don’t say we didn’t warn ya
Back in November, just after the presidential election, Neil Brown wrote a cracker of a column for the Speccie. It…
Worst. Phone call. Evah. Really?
It’s impossible to say for sure whether this business about a phone call between Turnbull and Trump is true. It smacks of…
British placenames
British placenames are so good you can read the map for entertainment rather than navigation. Hardington Mande-ville, Bradford Peverell, Carlton…
Serendipity
My two previous articles dwelt on Richard Réti’s introduction of the so-called hypermodern systems. Characterised by the double fianchetto of White’s…
no.442
White to play. This position is from So-Wojtaszek, Wijk aan Zee 2017. White has only one move to win. Can…
Creature discomfort
In Competition No. 2983, an assignment inspired by W.W. Jacobs’s macabre mini masterpiece ‘The Monkey’s Paw’, you were invited to…
Dear Mary
Q. My granddaughter has asked to use our barn for her 21st birthday dance in June. We can only sleep…
