Sociology
The mystical hold of the 1990s over Gen Z
At some point during the past decade and a half, it was decided that the 1990s were a golden age.…
Reliving the terror of the Bataclan massacre
Emmanuel Carrère knows when to let the horrors speak for themselves in his moving, hard-hitting account of the trial of the perpetrators
The great sociology con
My default mood at the moment is bleak despair, although it can sometimes be triggered into nihilistic loathing, which I…
No room at the top
‘Whatever your background,’ Margaret Thatcher told the Sun’s readers in 1983, she was determined that ‘you have a chance to…
Where’s the joy gone?
Britain seems to be suffering from a dearth of lightheartedness
Here comes everything
You can’t accuse John Gray of dodging the big questions, or indeed the big answers. His new book The Soul…
Tread carefully: your garden’s saturated with race
Is your life saturated with racial meaning? The most common answer to this question, when I ask friends and acquaintances,…
The one who got away with it
Since the passing of Auberon Waugh, there haven’t been many really successful right-wing comedians. The Mayor of London is one.…
The game of consequences
No one alive now has any adult experience of the first world war, but still it shows no sign of…














