Deplorable notes
Commentators here in America called President Trump’s (sweet Jesus, does that sound good) inauguration speech ‘dark’, proving again their own…
Jobs not RET
The Liberal party should stand for business, but it doesn’t. It should stand for jobs, but it doesn’t. It should…
Do you know who I am?
Anyone looking for a groundbreaking ethnography of the global political elite —the elusive social grouping that western electorates are currently…
A scandalous scramble
Empires in the Sun might conjure up romantic visions for some, but this book’s essence is distilled in its subtitle,…
An infinite spirit
Can American publishers be dissuaded from foisting absurd, bombastic subtitles on their books as if readers are all Trumpers avid…
Boy wonder
Back in 1978, a young and already successful Steven Spielberg told a bunch of would-be moviemakers at the American Film…
Lord of the Arctic
According to the author of this beautifully illustrated, hugely engaging book, if we were ever to choose a fellow mammal…
Before the bling
If you read the first volume of John Romer’s A History of Egypt, which traces events along the Nile from…
The empathy trap
Being against empathy sounds like being against flowers or sparrows. Surely empathy is a good thing? Isn’t one of the…
Telling on mother
Like many debut novels, The Nix, by the American author Nathan Hill, is about somebody writing their first book. Samuel…
A losing streak
In backgammon, a blot is a single checker, sitting alone and unprotected. This is a sly title for this sly…
Dangerous liaisons
In a Kashmiri apple orchard, a young fugitive from the Indian army’s cruel oppressions spots a snake that has ‘mistaken…
Reading between the lines
Writing to her sister Cassandra about Pride and Prejudice in January 1813, Jane Austen declared, in a parody of Walter…
A singular horror
Seventy years after the Nazi Holocaust, against the background of a rich and varied literature, Laurence Rees has achieved the…
Is Mrs May’s industrial strategy just another misguided missile?
The Prime Minister’s heralded ‘industrial strategy’ was robbed of headlines by the story of the misguided Trident missile. But it…
A Berlin Wall moment for political correctness
Because we’re all so obsessed with what it was that made the Nazis tick, we tend to overlook the bigger…
Wish him naught as we wave him goodbye
David Morrison crawled away from his Australian of the Year role as he performed it, self-aggrandising, unapologetic and intellectually irrelevant.…
Another wrong note from the Australian Republican Movement
My compliments to the Australian Republican Movement for their smashing new advert. It was heartening to see so many Australians…
Letters
What is a university? Sir: As a former Russell Group vice chancellor, I think that Toby Young’s appeal for more universities…
Corduroy
Every Christmas, I ask my loved ones for at least two pairs of corduroy trousers. Off with a sigh tramps…
Capa capitulates
The new book by Thomas Engqvist, Réti: Move by Move (Everyman Chess), about the hypermodern leader Richard Réti, is so significant…
no. 441
White to play. This is from Réti-Spielmann, Opatija 1912. How did Réti conclude his kingside attack? Answers to me at…
Seasick
In Competition No. 2982 you were invited to recast John Masefield’s ‘Sea Fever’ in light of the news that the…
