Boring politicians are a threat to democracy. That means you, Rachel Reeves
I’ve never met the woman that the Newsnight editor Ian Katz this week accidentally described as ‘boring, snoring Rachel Reeves’,…
Welcome back, TSB: your founder’s spirit is alive and well and living in Airdrie
A big hello to the revived Trustee Savings Bank — the spin-off of 631 Lloyds branches that were going to…
The end of the party
The decline of tribal loyalties spells the end of the big traditional political organisations
Lebanon’s dilemma
Beirut News that the Syrian regime has agreed to hand in its arsenal of chemical weapons is a great…
The ideal death show
I am in a yurt, talking about death. Everyone is seated in a circle, and I am the next-to-last person…
Notes on…Classic cruising
We arrive at the tiny Greek island of Sikinos on a blustery day, making landing rather difficult. Is there transport…
Donkeys led by donkeys
David Crane is taken aback by the particular contempt Max Hastings appears to reserve for the British at the outbreak of the first world war
Doctor in a toga
In the first draft of the screenplay for the film Gladiator, the character to be played by Russell Crowe (‘father…
A world without Wallis
In both his novels and non-fiction, D. J. Taylor has long been fascinated by the period between the wars. Now…
Friends before foes
Like Miranda Seymour, the author of this considerable work on Anglo-German relations, I was raised in a Germanophile home. I…
Building a Bridge
I didn’t even have to say: No need to explain, I understand. It was in his look — Look after…
Get Shorty
It is by now surely beyond doubt that those governments committed to fighting the war on drugs — and on…
The leader who followed
The historian of China Frank Dikötter has taken a sledgehammer to demolish perhaps the last remaining shibboleth of modern Chinese…
Multilingual Chinese whispers
There is a hoary Cold War joke about a newly invented translating machine. On a test run, the CIA scientists…
Not just a pretty dress
Every fashion era has its monster and in ours it’s Karl Lagerfeld, a man who has so emptied himself on…
The hero of Burma
Given the outcome of recent military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is pertinent to look for one particular quality…
Taking the rap
Since his suicide, David Foster Wallace has made the transition from major writer to major industry. Hence this UK issue…
It’s never too late
In 1998, the Jamaican singer Bounty Killer released a single, ‘Can’t Believe Mi Eyes’, which expressed incredulity that men should…
Helpful hints for Holloway
For some reason you don’t expect people to be fans of the Mitford sisters, as others are fans of Doctor…
