Bookends
One day in the late 17th century, goes the legend, a French monk named Pierre called out to his colleagues:…
Latham’s Law
Not many people see Laurie Ferguson, the Labor member for my old seat of Werriwa, as a raconteur. With his…
Wild Life
Aidan Hartley’s Wild Life Nairobi My friend Philip Coulson was shot at midnight while driving home after the theatre in…
Bookends
Harry Enfield has said that ‘comedy without Galton and Simpson would be like literature without Dickens,’ and he may be…
Latham’s law
When people retire from politics and are recognised for their service, there is an established hierarchy of naming rights. Local…
Bookends
Dr Temperance Brenner, like her creator, Kathy Reichs, is a forensic anthropologist. She works in North Carolina, specialising in ‘decomps…
Bookends
‘Owl?’ said Pooh. ‘What’s a biography?’ ‘A biography,’ replied Owl, ‘is an Important Book. Such as an Interested Person might…
Bookends: The Jazz Baroness
She was born Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild. Her father, Nathaniel Charles Rothschild, an ardent lepidopterist, named her Pannonica, Nica for…
Latham’s Law
The British Prime Minister David Cameron promised to build a big society. Yet all his nation has seen is a…
Latham’s law
What is it about Q&A? People who despise the show feel compelled to watch it every Monday night. It has…
Wild life
Indian Ocean On Hassan’s dhow, shaped like Vasco da Gama’s caravel, I can forget about dry land for a fortnight…
Bookends: Laughing by the book
Comedy is a serious business. The number of young people who seek to make a living making other people laugh…
Bookends
Of all the great cultural shifts of recent years, the rise to respectability of American comics may be the strangest.…
Latham’s law
In re-reading William Shawcross’s biography of Rupert Murdoch I was struck by the ideological extremism of its subject matter. In…
Bookends: Corpses in the coal hole
Ruth Rendell has probably pulled more surprises on her readers than any other crime writer. But the one she produces…
Bookends: A friend of mine
A friend of mine was throttled by Pete Postlethwaite once. It was outside a TV studio, people were smoking and…
Latham’s Law
One of the dubious techniques of political feminism is to construct false standards for the behaviour of men. The objective…
Bookends
I like books with weather and there’s plenty in this one, all bad, which is even better. Set in London…
Latham’s Law
Australia’s experiment with a female prime minister has failed. When she took the job 12 months ago, Julia Gillard needed…
Bookends: Scourge of New Labour
Like all politicians, Bob Marshall-Andrews is fond of quoting himself, and Off Message (Profile Books, £16.99) includes a generous selection…
Wild life
‘So much sorting to do,’ said my Aunt Beryl. We stood in the middle of her home in Sussex. I…
Bookends: Not just for Christmas
Sticky at Christmas, packed in serried rows around a plastic twig in an oval-ended paper-wrapped box with a picture of…
Latham’s law
With the sad passing of Rex ‘the Moose’ Mossop, it is at least comforting to know that his long lost…
Bookends: Venice improper
Books about Venice are almost as numerous as gondolas on the Grand Canal, but Robin Saikia is the first to…
Latham’s Law
The Great Depression was a golden age for sporting heroism, confirming the importance of inspiration in times of adversity. On…
