Is anything still cheap?
Things used to cost approximately what you expected them to cost. Now, the price of almost every item is eye-wateringly,…
Playing Nice is beautifully done – but they miscalculated the opening scene
There must have been a time when slow-burn psychological thrillers didn’t start with a scene of high drama followed by…
Letters | 11 January 2025
Growing problem Sir: The first leading article of the year (‘Growing apart’, 4 January) points to the gap in economic…
America’s new ally in the battle against Isis: the Taliban
Isis are back. In fact, to borrow Gerry Adams’s remark about the IRA, they never went away. Now, they are…
Bad vibrations: Lazarus Man, by Richard Price, reviewed
Shudderings from a subway extension in Harlem causes a tenement building to collapse, killing six people and leading to many missing in this cinematic thriller
Alexander Pushkin – Russia’s greatest letter-writer
Intimate, earthy and uninhibited, Pushkin’s letters, collected together, read like a novel and give an encyclopaedic view of 19th-century Russian life
Blitz decision
‘To share is to do’, as no Latin proverb dared to suggest. The 2024 Fide World Blitz championship, held in…
My YouTube rabbit hole
How do you live with yourself when 179 air passengers are burned alive on a South Korean runway, and you’ve…
The problem with Paul McCartney is he wrote too many good songs
Don Bradman, the greatest cricketer of all time, was once asked if he reckoned he could have maintained his batting…
How the drive to end teen pregnancies aided the grooming gangs
How did the depraved cruelty of Britain’s grooming gangs go on for so long, so openly and with such seeming…
What makes a good title?
Liszt’s compositions tend to have descriptive titles – ‘Wild Chase’; ‘Dreams of Love’ – whereas Chopin avoided titles. Thomas Wentworth…
We need safeguarding from safeguarders
What does it mean, in practice, to say that reporting child abuse should be mandatory? It sounds appropriately severe, but…
What real justice would look like for grooming gang victims
It is always interesting to watch a dam burst. In the past week, as Elon Musk and other prominent Americans…
Donald Trump and new political disorder
Donald Trump isn’t back in the White House yet, but already his victory is being felt across the world. Greenland…
Our family is growing – and our dog is bound to be unimpressed
I am now well into my second pregnancy. Having conceived through IVF the first time, we were fortunate to have…
Portrait of the week: grooming gangs, wildfires and a Littler victory
Home Responding to a rejection by Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, of calls for a government inquiry into historical child…
The unfulfilled life: Ask Me Again, by Clare Sestanovich, reviewed
Our aimless young heroine struggles to find herself in New York, Washington and Los Angeles – but even the novel’s inconclusiveness is compelling
The Greeks, not Labour, should be teaching children oracy
The Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson wants schools to teach oracy, i.e. the ability to present orally a clear and cogent…
Jolie good: Maria reviewed
Maria is a film by Pablo Larrain, who appears to have a soft spot for the psychodramas of legendary women…
Who’ll join my war against liberalism?
I can see one possible benefit of having a full inquiry into the almost exclusively Muslim grooming gangs who raped…
The Natural History Museum’s new Evolution Garden is inspired
The Natural History Museum is one of the most beautiful buildings in London, but its gardens have long been a…
Keir Starmer, school harmer
Twin studies are one of the most useful exercises in scientific inquiry. Take two biologically identical children who are brought…
It’s time to fast-track our adoption process
The debate surrounding the sexual exploitation of thousands of children over decades, which has re-ignited this week, should act as…
Does Kemi Badenoch have a plan?
We are nearing the 50th anniversary, next month, of Margaret Thatcher becoming leader of the Conservative party. Only one other…
