‘Now I have been made whole’: Lucy Sante’s experience of transition
Until the age of 66, Sante lived as a deeply divided man. In this story of self-realisation, she describes how transitioning finally ‘lifted the veil’ over her existence
Why I’ll never own a pair of jeans
North Korea has a problem with Alan Titchmarsh’s crotch. Last week a 2010 episode of Garden Secrets was aired on…
What a super-majority means for Labour
When the last Tory government fell, the famous question after election night was: ‘Were you up for Portillo?’ Were you…
Exhilarating: MJ the Musical reviewed
If you’ve heard good reports about MJ the Musical, believe them all and multiply everything by a hundred. As a…
Could Sadiq Khan lose London?
With Labour 20 points ahead in the national polls, a lot of Tories have already written off next month’s mayoral…
The London Library should leave us in peace
Reading only slightly between the lines of US foreign policy on Israel/Gaza, I detect that its most urgent aim is…
How on earth does Rishi Sunak keep going?
It’s my birthday this week and the end of my seventh decade (mathematicians will note that this does not make…
Portrait of the Week: hate crimes, surprise knighthoods and flaming rickshaws
Home The Hate Crime and Public Order Act came into effect in Scotland, making it a crime to communicate or…
Britain’s role in ending the slave trade ought to be celebrated
It was bound to happen sooner or later: a guest on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow presented an artefact which derived…
Impressionism is 150 years old – this is the anniversary show to see
The time that elapsed between the fall of the Paris Commune and the opening of the first proper impressionist exhibition…
Can Starmer control 450 unruly MPs?
It doesn’t matter how loyal a candidate is. Once elected, all MPs (to a greater or lesser extent) conclude they…
Never admit that your band is prog – it’s the kiss of death
Sensible prog-rock bands try to ensure no one ever realises they play prog. What happens when you are deemed a…
Joe Biden is running out of time in the Middle East
Jerusalem The idea of a Saudi-Israel rapprochement would have been unthinkable not so long ago, and yet, shortly before the…
Compelling and somewhat heartbreaking: Girls State, on Apple TV+, reviewed
Here’s a fun thought experiment: instead of entrusting the future of American democracy to one of two old men, what…
Labour’s Gaza problem
The district of Pendle in Lancashire has a long history of dissenters, nonconformists, witches and murderers. Perhaps because it is…
Are conspiracy theories just conspiracy therapy?
At the Centre for Rare Diseases, the car park was full and lots of people were milling about. I pulled…
The ‘luxury beliefs’ that harm vulnerable children
Now that everyone insists that the oppressed must be lifted up – or platformed, if you’re that way inclined: why…
When is a Lord not a Lord?
The Financial Times seeks applicants for the Sir Samuel Brittan fellowship. Announcing this, the paper refers to him as Sir…
How many people sleep rough?
Ballot points Michael Gove hinted that the general election could be on 14 or 21 November. Have we had a…
The secret of success in Formula 1
For decades, competitive advantage depended on finding loopholes in the sport’s rule book – and no one knew that better than the British entrepreneur Bernie Ecclestone
Babies with Down’s syndrome have a right to be born
Many of us remember at least one morning in our childhoods when fate threw us some unexpected twist and we…
The rat as hero
After adopting two baby rats as pets, Joe Shute slowly overcomes his aversion and learns to appreciate the intelligence of creatures that are really quite like us
Teenagers are fuelling Sweden’s gun crisis
Stockholm There were 149 bomb attacks in Sweden last year. Though warring gangs are for the most part responsible, ordinary…
My prep school scarred me for life
‘A part of me died at school’, Charles Spencer writes in his shockingly stark account of sadism and sexual abuse at Maidwell Hall, Northamptonshire, in the 1970s
