Alongside Beans
weeding alongside beans in the same rush as them 6 a.m. scrabbling at the earth beans synchronised in rows soft…
Proof that the British hardly ever had a stiff upper lip
Thomas Dixon’s Weeping Britannia proves that only empire stemmed the flow of our tears
Allan Massie’s Bordeaux Quartet is truer to Occupied France than any history
End Games in Bordeaux, the final volume, has too much action but some vintage details
Sport’s first celebrity: W.G. Grace
Amazing Grace and Gilbert: The Last Years of W.G. Grace – two biographies of the cricket Champion
Retracing The Thirty-Nine Steps in Buchan’s beloved Borders
Richard Hannay’s first adventure, now 100 years old, is a pastoral disguised as a thriller
A Mile Down: David Vann’s memoir of a disastrous career at sea
David Vann’s memoir, A Mile Down, about his disastrous career at sea is an irresistible read
Sorry, America, but it looks like Joe Biden is your next president
Plus: Bloomberg, Kissinger and me; Hillary Clinton’s Peronist path to power
Bulgarian tragedy
From ‘Bulgaria and Greece’, The Spectator, 9 October 1915: The fact that the British people will in all probability soon be…
Finally, a business rates reform! If only I knew what it meant
Plus: George Osborne's cunning pension plan; and the delightful Denis Healey
A Supreme Court justice and the scary plan to outlaw climate change
An imaginary problem could soon have real consequences in international law
Spittle is the only thing Labour has left
I’m perfectly qualified to dispense ‘community justice’ with the loutish protestors at the Tory party conference
Women are still scared to talk about IVF. Let’s change that
Stigma and superstition are confining a crucial, life-changing conversation to coy and cutesy internet forums
Was BBC1’s Rooney hagiography more scripted reality than documentary?
Plus: why are old people on TV never allowed to behave like old people? BBC4's Close to the Edge reviewed
I’ve never thought much of John Lennon’s music – until now
Plus: the extraordinary life of Eleanor Roosevelt and the pain of a son’s disappearance
It may have a meagre script and no plot but Farinelli and the King is still a major work of art
Plus: Rachel Cusk’s Medea at the Almeida isn’t a bad piece of yuppie soap, but it’s hardly Medea
Why Carly Fiorina (probably) can’t save the Republicans
The former HP boss is just the kind of woman the party base loves – and that other Americans are scared of
Please let’s have more musicals like this Kiss Me, Kate at Opera North
Plus: does Wozzeck work in concert? Zurich Opera's one-night stand at the Royal Festival Hall certainly did
Barometer
The death of Diesel The Volkswagen scandal has brought into question the future of the diesel engine. A century ago…
Isis takes its British schoolgirl jihadis seriously. Why don’t we?
If the authorities don’t act, the stowaway ‘Isis brides’ of today will be tomorrow’s homing missiles
I invented ‘virtue signalling’. Now it’s taking over the world
It’s a true privilege to have coined a phrase – even if people credit it to Libby Purves instead
They do more than just ninny about in elaborate hats, thank Christ: Suffragette reviewed
There are clunky script moments, and the plot is at times soapily manipulative, but Carey Mulligan's face saves the day
Blood, sand and tragedy in Papa Hemingway and Ava Gardner country
Parties such as the one I’ve just been to in Seville will soon be gone with the wind
Happiness is a chainsaw and a maul in the rain and the mud
Provence in the rain is as miserable as anywhere else but Charlie came to the rescue with his power tool
Why did Goya’s sitters put up with his brutal honesty?
In the National Gallery’s new exhibition, Goya: The Portraits, you see a talented provincial become a modern master
I rode my own racehorse and was changed for ever
I have always felt I can trust my horse with my life; that day I found out exactly what that meant
