Sex
A strong whiff of goodbyes: The Pole and Other Stories, by J.M. Coetzee, reviewed
‘The cogs are seizing up, the lights are going out.’ As Elizabeth Costello clears her desk in this collection of stories, we feel that Coetzee may be doing the same
The inequality of sex
As we all shroud ourselves in grief at being unable to watch Russell Brand any more on terrestrial television stations,…
The less said the better
Some time ago I was a guest at a book festival in France where we were invited to dinner in…
Secret assignations
Adam Sisman on the private life of John le Carré, revealed in letters and a kiss-and-tell
Sex objects
The German branch of the ‘green’ organisation Peta (‘People for the ethical treatment of animals’) is demanding that, until men…
Liberté, égalité, nudité
France’s new sexual politics
Why it has to be Kemi
Have you considered a career in whoring? It can be very rewarding, apparently – especially financially. World’s oldest profession and…
High life
Looking back and trying to choose just one out of those incomparably bewitching women of one’s youth can be tricky.…
The rise of the sex bore
You know you’re getting old when your friends start going to sex parties. In our twenties, there were parties, and…
Let’s talk about sex
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande stars Emma Thompson as a retired, widowed religious education teacher in her sixties who…
Be careful what you wish for
The problem for feminism is men. Not, specifically, in the sense that men are the source of women’s problems, although…
Laughing in the face of adversity
Writing from a child’s point of view is a daredevil act that Miriam Toews raises the stakes on in her…
Ice storm
The ‘chemsex’ drug devastating the gay community
This be the curse
Philip Larkin’s big problem
Women don’t ‘consent’ to their own deaths
A ruling by the Court of Appeal last week has further enshrined the notion that women can consent to their…
The grim reality of gender reassignment
Lisa Littman, a doctor and researcher, recently surveyed ‘detransitioners’ — people who thought they were transgender then changed their minds.…
Why can’t men write about sex?
Not long ago I was a regular Tinder user. Having heard that gingers were romantically incompatible, I decided to mix…
The chaser and the chaste
Consider the hare and the hyena. The hare, Clement of Alexandria told readers of his 2nd-century sexual self-help manual Paedagogus,…
New Zealand’s transgender debate is turning nasty
New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. But now,…
Sex education
The publication of the new Cambridge Greek Lexicon reminded the comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes of her frustrations at school,…
Putting on a brave face
San Francisco is a fantastic place… it’s terribly sunny… I am having a splendid hedonistic time here… I find myself…
Teen spirit
Schools and the problem of ‘rape culture’
Frolics and fossils
Ammonite is writer-director Francis Lee’s second film after God’s Own Country, one of the best films of 2017, and possibly…
They had it coming
This year marks three decades since Robert Maxwell fell naked to his death from the deck of his yacht, The…
Raw Bacon
Francis Bacon once told the art critic Richard Cork: ‘I certainly hope I’ll go on till I drop dead.’ Max…
