Why were the security services so obsessed with the Marxist historian Christopher Hill?
MI5 and Special Branch intercepted Hill’s mail for decades, but the former Master of Balliol was an impartial teacher and certainly no Soviet agent
A gloom-laden tale: The Foot on the Crown, by Christopher Fowler reviewed
Returning to his roots in horror fiction, Fowler portrays Londinium as a dismal citadel, ruled by an enfeebled dynasty clinging to pointless rituals
A mild diversion for a wet afternoon: Three Days in June, by Anne Tyler, reviewed
Tyler is known for making the ordinary compelling, but this quiet tale of family relationships is subtle to the point of stupor
The sexual escapades of Edmund White sound like an improbably sordid Carry On film
The octogenarian writer seems unable to resist the burlesque, describing the most lurid encounters at an apparently droll remove
Modernisation has sent Russia spinning back to the Stone Age
Howard Amos portrays a once hopeful country now sweeping the past under the carpet as it alternates between pitying itself and pitting itself against the rest of the world
The gruesome fascination of female murderers
The 17th-century broadsheets revelled in describing the ‘lewd, abominable, corrupt’ nature of the ‘haggs’ and ‘she-devils’ indicted for homicide
The supreme conjuror Charles Dickens weaves his magic spell
Peter Conrad reminds us how the skilled stage performer, always yearning for enchantment, even introduced a few disguised magic tricks into his fiction
Zakynthos: then and now
“You just missed Chris Hoy. He was here leading cycle rides over the summer,” the Peligoni Club’s receptionist informed me…
Hamas’s final torment of the Bibas family
So Hamas has committed yet another act of depravity against the Bibas family. It said Shiri Bibas was in one…
Why Trump doesn’t see Putin as a real threat
It turns out that Harold Wilson’s famous quote, ‘A week is a long time in politics’, is equally applicable to…
The online shopping boom is well and truly over
So much for ‘dry’ and ‘no buy’ January. The UK public seems to have thoroughly rebelled against efforts to persuade…
Has Rachel Reeves broken her fiscal rules?
Rachel Reeves is having to borrow more money than even the worst estimates expected. Figures on the public finances, published…
The shame of Big Energy’s £3.9 billion profit windfall
It is one of the world’s great mysteries: if wind and solar energy are supposed to be so cheap then…
The hard truth about Britain’s armed forces
There is something ironic about the fact that just as Donald Trump has made it clear that Europe needs to…
Christoph Heusgen is just another arrogant boomer
Historians will look back on the tears of Christoph Heusgen as a defining moment of the early 21st century. When the…
Is the Amazon version of James Bond doomed?
So at last the deadlock has been broken. After months, even years, of tension between Amazon MGM, who own the…
Elon Musk wields chainsaw at impromptu CPAC appearance
National Harbor, Maryland Elon Musk made a surprise appearance at CPAC Thursday afternoon, where Argentinian president Javier Milei presented him…
Liz Truss calls for a ‘Trump revolution in Britain’
National Harbor, Maryland Former British prime minister Liz Truss began her speech at CPAC today by declaring that America has…
Luis Rubiales and Spain’s war on machismo
Luis Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the medal ceremony after Spain won the Women’s World Cup…
VP Vance touts border security, energy and humor at CPAC
Vice President J.D. Vance took to the Conservative Political Action Committee stage moments ago for a sit-down interview with Mercedes…
Dutton and Abbott have got Ukraine wrong, not Trump
Peter Dutton has said that Trump is wrong on Ukraine, while Tony Abbott has claimed that the US President is…
