Yanukovych vs Caligula
Tyrants never seem to learn. As Cicero could tell you, there are good reasons for that...
The dawn of four-party politics
The Tories and Labour can't count on ever winning another majority. Elections will never be the same
When is a protest not a protest? When we decide to call it a revolution
Our double standards are remarkable
What’s bad about giving people what they want?
I’m joining a website where my writing will make people happy. According to my friends, that makes it ‘fruitloop central’
Why a trillion dollars of dividends is a milestone worth celebrating
Plus: Trouble in clubland, and a paperclip in GCHQ
The joy of being hated
If you're tough enough, there's nothing more bracing than an online bitch-fight
Alfred’s greatest moment
If King Alfred hadn’t escaped the midwinter raid, the country as we know it might never have existed
Art in country houses
At Chatsworth and Waddesdon Manor, and other places, the tradition of patronage lives
From post office girl to woman of letters
A review of Dreams of the Good Life, by Richard Mabey. The author of Lark Rise has been ill served by dirt-diggers. This biography is better
Outfoxed in the desert
A review of 'Strafer': The Desert General by N.S. Nash. General W.H.E. Gott knew how to beat Rommel – but he didn't live to prove it
Flirting with magic realism
A review of Boy, Snow, Bird, by Helen Oyeyemi. This Granta Best of Young British Novelist deserves better editing
That’s not entertainment
A review of Blockbusters, by Anita Elberse. If this is what they teach you at Harvard Business School, it's no wonder the most successful CEOs didn't go there
Sins of the fathers
A review of The Dark Box, by John Cornwell. This angry history of confession is sinfully enjoyable
Nasty, brutish — and much too long
A review of The Kennan Diaries, edited by Frank Costiliogla. Has America ever produced a nastier, more snobbish bore?
An uncompromising truth-teller
Macmillan Bello's reissues show Francis King to be one of English fiction's uncompromising truth-tellers
An old-fashioned English eccentric
A review of Airborne: Scenes from the Life of Lance Sievking. Planes! Prison camps! Modernist radio! And much of it may be true