The endless fascination of volcanoes
Tamsin Mather is the latest highly articulate volcanologist to combine vivid personal experience with thoughtful scientific explanation
Kindness backfires: Sufferance, by Charles Palliser, reviewed
When the father of a family takes in a lost young girl from a minority ethnic group, he puts his own household at risk as racial persecution mounts
The traditional British hedge is fast vanishing
The best hedges teem with the biodiversity that plays such a vital part in our future. Yet, since the 1950s, farmers and developers have been destroying them at an alarming rate
The perils of waiting on a Tudor queen
Henry VIII considered the queen’s household a fruitful hunting-ground – for a mistress, a future wife, or a pawn, whose testimony could provide useful damaging evidence
Exploring the glorious literary heritage of Bengal
Bengalis are renowned for their love of discussion and argument, and a new collection of short stories reflects this passion for cultured conversation
What do we mean when we talk of ‘home’?
Though deeply attached to her ‘squat, odd-looking house’ near Uffington, Clover Stroud comes to realise that home is as much about bonds between people as a particular place
There’s much to be said for nostalgia
Instead of condemning it as dangerous fantasy, two new books argue that we should welcome nostalgia as ‘emotional armour’ in a fast-changing world
When the local wizard was the repository of all wisdom
Before the arrival of ‘proper’ doctors, everyone in the Middle Ages, from rulers to peasants, turned to magic practitioners and cunning folk for healing and advice
‘There are an awful lot of my paintings I don’t like’, admitted Francis Bacon
While waspishly dismissive of many of the 20th century’s greatest artists, Bacon was also critical of his own work, in conversation with David Sylvester
Swapping aprés ski for aprés spa
“Welcome to your thirties,” my friend Rich roared, throwing open the balcony door leading onto our hotel room’s private loggia.…
What was the point of Just Stop Oil’s Magna Carta stunt?
The eco-activists of Just Stop Oil have often been caricatured as a group of middle-class students with too much time…
Victorian budget blues
The best thing that can be said about the 2024 Victorian Budget is that it’s not as bad as recent…
To stock the book or not?
A Sydney council is currently under fire for passing a motion to ban same-sex parenting books from the shelves of…
Campus sit-ins
Let’s be clear. Supporting free speech does not require you to allow people to trespass or to shut down public…
Why is Colombia turning its back on Israel in its hour of need?
Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro has terminated diplomatic relations with Israel and described the country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as ‘genocidal’.…
What is the anti-Israel Eurovision protest really about?
A young Israeli woman warned to stay in her hotel room. A baying mob on the streets outside hollering slogans…
Joe Biden’s failure is Bob Gates’s vindication
One of the most famous criticisms of Joe Biden over the years came from former Bush and Obama secretary of…
Harry and Meghan’s Nigeria tour is nothing but PR fodder
Prince Harry’s visit to London this week, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Invictus games, was largely overshadowed by…
Starmer is copying the Tory small boats strategy
Today is one of those rare occasions in British politics – a day when Rishi Sunak’s government has a bit…
Will John Swinney abandon Sturgeon’s gender bill?
There may be a new First Minister in the driving seat but can the SNP overtake Labour’s lead in the…
Keir Starmer won’t stop the boats
Labour’s new ‘stop the boats’ policy is a risible exercise in deception that will only ever fool the truly gullible.…
Who are ‘the blob’?
Liz Truss calls them the ‘deep state’, Dominic Cummings ‘the blob’ and for Sue Gray they are simply former colleagues.…
Does David Lammy really expect Donald Trump to forgive and forget?
David Lammy has never been much of a diplomat. The veteran Labour MP is fond of lashing out at his…
The UK leaves recession behind in 2023
This morning the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed that the UK confined its technical recession to 2023. The economy grew by 0.6…
Is Dominic Cummings’ ‘start up party’ a non-starter?
We haven’t heard much from Dominic Cummings since he walked out of No. 10 Downing Street in November 2020. Now…
