You don’t have to be a left-wing think tank to believe the bosses’ pay boom is unhealthy
Plus: A promising house-price fall, and the joy of working older
The British beheaders
We've become the West's leading producer of 'foreign fighters'. Some day the chickens will come home to roost
The view from Kurdistan
From the Kurdish boom city of Erbil to the disputed towns where Kurds fled the Islamic State
Not black and white
Michael Brown's death and the disorder that has followed are being seen through two specious narratives. We won't see the real truth until the trial – if then
Invading the womb of gods
From the dawn of civilisation, the Fertile Crescent has been a cradle to strange and fascinating sects. Not any more
Girl talk
I admire the courage of transsexuals, but the defining of a woman solely by what you see when she is or is not dress is the province of Page Three
The Origin of Poetry
Forgive the figure curled like a question mark in the corner no one speaks his language He tried to read…
Set our footie fans free!
'Bubble matches' sound quaint. In fact, they trample all over freedom of movement
Seville
You'll find the youthful vigour amid the grand architecture, as long as you're not looking too hard
The paradigm of a poet
A review of Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love, by James Booth. A far more attractive character emerges from this new biography than the miserable Mr Nasty found in Andrew Motion's
An aura of sovereignty
A review of The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America. The presidency's power is increasing ominously – although perhaps not quite as much as this book thinks
80 sq yds per gallon
Nothing brings him to the door quite as surely as Silexine Watertight, the complete waterproofer. One Imperial Quart. Opened this…
The Putney boy done good
A review of Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most faithful Servant, by Tracy Borman. More conviction is needed from this otherwise engaging new biography
The mother of all problems
Man at the Helm, Nina Stibbe's first novel, is like What Maisie Knew, but with laughs and four-letter words
That sinking feeling
A review of Italian Venice: A History, by R.J.B. Bosworth. Informative but clichéd history of the past 200-years with guest appearances by Chanel, Coward and Diana
Doing the Woburn Walk
A review of Bloomsbury and the Poets, by Nicholas Murray. A delightful guide to the rich literary history of the London district
The colonel and the commander
Comparing brothers Peter and Ian Fleming, Fionn Morgan wonders who was the better writer and who the better man
The great betrayal
A review of The Last Stalinist: The Life of Santiago Carillo, by Paul Preston. Carillo betrayed the Republican cause and was probably responsible for the worst atrocity committed by the Left during the Civil War
Title Stories: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
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State of independence
Lloyd Evans’ trawl of Edinburgh will make for unhappy reading for the yes campaign
‘Ashtray Annie’
She played with the freedom of Furtwangler, the command of Schnabel and the safety-last approach of a crazy gambler
Back to the future
While the Estorick explores the Futurist landscapes of Gerardo Dottori, Sladers Yard in Bridport surveys the work of a controversial young figurative painter
Tainted love
Joseph Kerman’s dismissal of Tosca as ‘a shabby little shocker’ has cast a long shadow over Puccini’s operas
