Letters: The brilliant uselessness of art
Wonderfully useless Sir: Michael Simmons overlooks some scandalous examples of frivolous funding right under his nose (‘Waste land’, 15 February).…
China is not the West’s environmental ally
In the fight against climate change, China loves to present itself as the world’s White Knight. Armed with wind turbines…
The secrets of the perfect potato rösti
You may be forgiven, if you are a regular reader of this column, for thinking that my primary motivation in…
How has Brexit affected ferry travel?
Meeting expectations Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had a telephone call prior to US and Russian officials meeting in Saudi…
Lauren Mayberry is terrific – but it’s not music for middle-aged men
There are nights when one realises quite how much effort the business end of showbusiness must be. On a bitterly…
I won’t let my mother be sent to a care home
My mother was about to be taken to a care home called Willow Trees, and the first thing my instincts…
Why is there no campaign to free novelist Boualem Sansal?
Paris What possible crime has the award-winning novelist Boualem Sansal committed that merits being locked away for three months now…
An artist in her own right: the genius of Elizabeth Siddal
Her imaginative, edgy sketches, though lacking technical expertise, often look beyond their time to a post-naturalist, symbolist era
J.D. Vance didn’t go far enough on Europe
In January last year the European Union revealed that it had dreamed up a ‘secret plan’ to sabotage the economy…
In defence of decommissioning
There’s more than a grain of truth in the popular caricature of a curator as a mother hen clucking frantically…
Regents Opera’s Ring is a formidable achievement
I saw the world end in a Bethnal Green leisure centre. Regents Opera’s Ring cycle, which began in 2022 in…
Tedious and threadbare: Unicorn, at the Garrick Theatre, reviewed
Unicorn, Mike Bartlett’s new play, involves some characters in chairs discussing a sexual threesome. That’s the entire show. Polly (Nicola…
Is Britain funding organisations that wish us harm?
Frivolous state funding isn’t only going to chancers, the plain lucky and the devious, but also to those who would…
The White Lotus is off to a shaky start
The White Lotus, now back for a third series, could perhaps be best described as Death in Paradise for posh…
In the footsteps of Cecil Rhodes
In a scrubby paddock on the edge of Bulawayo, I walked up to a half-broken leatherwood tree growing in a…
