The pitfalls and privileges of being a politician’s child
It’s not that you’re more certain than anyone else. It’s that you find out early how many people disagree with you – and despise you for it
Why picking holes in Piketty might help stop Miliband’s mansion tax
Plus: Why Boris should stay on as mayor, and the Saga saga
The dilemma for Dave
The Prime Minister’s sniffy attitude to some of his own natural supporters seems quite likely to cost him power
Approaching Little Big Horn
All spring the scattered bands gathered, the People, the Human Beings, all those like themselves on this earth — Lakota…
Ken Loach is a bore
He’s so keen to parade the virtue of those he feels have been robbed of a voice that his work sinks under the weight
Salmond’s secret weapon
Nothing makes Scots feel more Scottish than the World Cup – especially when the other lot are playing
A broadcaster’s notebook
Plus: The glories of the Chelsea Flower Show, and the secret to a good night at the opera
City of a thousand and one nights
Justin Marozzi's Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood is a work of love about a city that has seen glories and survived horrors
Beware of Brits bearing arms
A review of The Ariadne Objective, by Wes Davis. Leigh Fermor's adventures in Crete make for a romantic story – but that doesn't mean he's remembered fondly there
Simon says
Simon Heffer's Simply English could be THE pedant's loo book of the year – as long as you agree with his prejudices
Love and betrayal
The title of Charles Cumming’s seventh novel is both a nod to the comfortable polarities of Cold War and also…
Lest we forget
A review of Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China, by Rowena Xiaoqing He. A masterly narrative that keeps the memory of 1989 alive
His brother’s keeper
Akhil Sharma's Family Life tells a story of immigration and disability with exhilarating clarity, economy and wit
Homer in the theme park
What You Want, by Constantine Phipps, is a didactic verse epic that takes Dante as its model – and, against all expectation, it works
Original Sin
When first they ushered me into that hall To take my place on a cheap fold-out seat, My eyes clamped…
A beautiful mind too
A review of Twin Tracks, by Roger Bannister. Bannister's two brilliant careers, medical and athletic, both show the power of mind over matter
Mockers and moaners
Richard Littlejohn, on the other had, has a great story about a guy called Frank the Bummer. A review of Selfish, Whining Monkeys, by Rod Liddle and Littlejohn’s Lost World, by Richard Littlejohn
The theatre of politics
A review of A State of Play, by Steven Fielding. A well researched, judiciously selective and fastidiously politically correct history of political productions
Blood at the root
A review of The New Sylva: A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-first Century, by Gabriel Hemery and Sarah Simblet. John Evelyn, the father of modern forestry, provides the starting point for a silvological exploration - but it could all be gone by 2100
The enlightened one
A review of The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames, by Kai Bird. One of the best nonfiction books ever written about the West’s involvement in the Arab world
