History
Food for thought
James Howells has spent years trying to persuade Newport council to allow him to spend millions digging up a rubbish…
Holding water
It is clear that the country will soon need a Water Czar. Augustus’s right-hand man Agrippa would be the one…
The unflattering truth
The battle to be PM raises the question: in a functioning democracy, how should arguments be won? Surely, by persuasion.…
The forgotten history of Poland and Ukraine
Since the outbreak of war in February there has been an overwhelming focus on the historical links between Russia and…
The play’s the thing
Last week Lloyd Evans was wondering whether it was about time audiences started booing dramatic productions of which they disapproved.…
Labours of love
An Oxford don has raised the prospect of producing a cocktail of hormone pills that would help you to fall…
What is the most significant year of the Queen’s reign?
A Jubilee poll
Barometer
Long to reign over us The Queen is the world’s current longest-serving monarch, but two in history have had longer…
Call that a party?
The ancients certainly knew how to put on a celebration. Let us hope the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee comes up to…
Soldiering on
Given Putin’s less than triumphant operation in Chechnya, where the Russian army suffered catastrophic losses, it is hardly surprising that…
Ship shape
The biggest cruise ship yet builthas just been launched, but in like-for-like terms, it comes nowhere near the Syracusia,built c.…
Law and orders
St. Petersburg University in Russia is (desperately?) inviting scholars worldwide to a conference in September celebrating Mikhail Speransky. It was…
Rewriting history
Historians in Russia have a long and craven record, now going back centuries, of being economical with the truth about…
Raging against God
Patriarch Kirill is Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’ and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church; and one of his…
A history lesson for those calling Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe ‘ungrateful’
In the latest installment from the idiot age of Twitter, #ungratefulcow has been trending. The reason? Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had expressed, mildly and politely,…
Tacit approval
Last week Aristotle offered a lesson in tyrant theory. This week Tacitus (ad 56-c.120) offers one in tyrant practice. Tacitus…
From the Gauls to the Gilets Jaunes
Philip Hensher is enthralled by Graham Robb’s evocative new history of France
Tyrants past and present
Is Putin a tyrant? Aristotle (384-322 bc) might well have thought so. Seeing the turannos as a deviant type of…
High life
Was it Socrates who said that chaos was the natural state of mankind, and tyranny the usual remedy? Actually it…
Vintage years
Across oceans and continents, less favoured nations produce more history than they can consume. In these islands, the English —…
Healthy profit
Yet again ‘doctors’ with no qualifications have been found advertising dodgy but expensive products and treatments, in this case, injections…
Words of advice
The Prime Minister has been having some trouble with his inner circle of advisers. Tacitus supplies fine examples of how…
Classified information
The seduction of back-page ads
Cher options
The singer Cher, now 75, has announced that, because she refuses to appear old, she is not going to allow…
Gathering storm
Whatever the result of Sue Gray’s report on ‘gatherings’ in Downing Street, there is a political lesson to be learned:…
