The latest brilliant idea over at Channel 4
It is very lucky for the BBC that Channel 4 exists. Whatever imbecilic, supposedly attention-grabbing trash the BBC commissions, there will…
By the book: All passion rent
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, 81 per cent of British people want to own their homes within the…
It’s the secret of a successful marriage: my wife treats me like a dog
‘Here, Wolf,’ says the Fawn to me, showing me a saucer. ‘Look at this! This is the new place where…
What business is it of the taxman whether I’m married or not?
The Conservative party is trying to redefine marriage. I can’t believe they think they’re going to get away with this.…
Great creator and sharer of wealth? Maybe, but Mr Rich was also a terrible role model
Marc Rich, the godfather of global commodity trading who died last week, ‘deserves credit as one of the greatest creators…
The Colours of London
(after Yoshio Markino, 1911) Colours of women, a grey-veiled pink, a bloom Fading to yellow, stippled, dust-hung, flecked Soot startling…
While Mandela lives on
The past few weeks have been an agonising dress rehearsal for the great statesman’s death
Sarko strikes back
The defeated president is ready to retake his party – and wreak his revenge on François Hollande
Measuring up to Machiavelli
Few of today’s statesmen, says Philip Bobbitt, deserve comparison with the ‘seriously ethical’ author of The Prince
A Fisherman’s Notebook
You remember the climax of Jaws — the primeval moment when Quint the crazed Ahab-like fisherman goes mano a mano…
Behind the masque
Music has always been integral to the image and power of monarchy. Our present Royal family should take note, says Jonathan Keate
The essential vade-mecum
After Zorba the Greek, here comes Horace the Roman. The peasant Zorba, you’ll remember from the film, releases uptight, genteel…
Father of tartan noir
Laidlaw was first published in 1977, 36 years back from now, 38 on from The Big Sleep. Like Chandler’s classic…
The future that was
Here, for time travellers, is the whack-job spirit of ’68 in distillate form, paperbound and reissued in facsimile (with some…
World-weary world power
A year or so after the ‘liberation’ of Iraq, an unnamed senior Bush administration official (later revealed to be Karl…
Cheaper than chimps
After the Morecambe Bay Hospital scandal a new era opens of compassion, -whistle-blowing, naming names and possible prosecutions. But what…
Still a ticking timebomb
No book about Dr David Kelly could start anywhere other than at the end. Kelly is found, dead, in a…
A sense of fairytale
The Vet’s Daughter is Barbara Comyns’s fourth and most startling novel. Written in 1959 when she was 50 it is…
Fighting culture’s corner
The latest round of cuts have been greeted with relief. Think again, says Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund
French disconnection
One of the many cultural initiatives to have come out of France in the past 50 years — and therefore…
Shape shifting
Eduardo Chillida (1924–2002) is one of the greatest of modern sculptors yet curiously little known in this country. The last…
Greatest show on earth
Yes, I’m sorry, the Stones at Glastonbury really were that good and if you weren’t there I’m afraid you seriously…
The Wright stuff
Kate Chisholm talks to the director of the BBC Proms about the challenges of coming up with 75 nightly programmes
Celebrity watch
Sofia Coppola’s latest film is not an action adventure, or a supernatural horror, or a stoner comedy, just so you…
