Mexico
Poverty + anarchy + drug dollars = Mexico
You may not have heard of the Maras. Or Barrio 18. Or the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or the Zatas,…
One holy mess
This novel, John Irving’s 14th, took the sheen off my Christmas, and here are the reasons. The comments on…
The murderous gangs who run the world
Rosalio Reta was 13 years old when recruited by a Mexican drug cartel. He was given a loyalty test —…
Mexican wave
Tours that start in Mexico have a nasty habit of repeating on one. Of all the British groups touring in…
What’s to become of Pedro Friedeberg’s letters?
Duncan Fallowell on the elusive Mexican artist and man-of-letters who has been his friend and faithful correspondent over many years — though they have never met
James Bond
For fans of the franchise who remain unconvinced by Daniel Craig’s time on her majesty’s secret service, the stories leaking…
The true flower of dawn
Leonora Carrington is one of those jack-in-the-boxes who languish forgotten in the cultural toy cupboard and then pop up every…
Daddy, we hardly knew you
The lefty hereditary peer has few equals as a figure of fun, in life or literature. The late Tony Benn…
Viva España
‘Every schoolboy knows who imprisoned Montezuma and who strangled Atahualpa.’ Macaulay, anticipating Gove, was complaining that the schoolboys by contrast…
Mint condition
New year new ideas as we woke up on Monday morning to find ourselves in Lagos with Evan Davies trying…
A brainy delight
The Japanese are sometimes said to suffer from ‘outsider person shock’ (gaijin shokku) when travelling abroad. Recently in London we…
Get Shorty
It is by now surely beyond doubt that those governments committed to fighting the war on drugs — and on…
Political power
Revolution shook Mexico between 1910 and 1920, but radical political change was not mirrored in the art of the period.…
The great American nightmare
Colonel Eli McCullough, formerly known as Tiehteti, is a living legend. The first male child born in the Republic of…
