Behind the Masks

Leader: The Democrats face a reckoning

If they are to win again, the Democrats need to see the US as it is, not as they…

Letter of the week: Forced to go private

Email [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.

The Owen Paterson fiasco has reminded Westminster that Boris Johnson is mortal

The PM is often seen as politically invulnerable, but the latest sleaze row has hurt him.

Bosnia could be the next victim of the West’s weakness and polarisation

In central and eastern Europe, politicians know that the West will no longer intervene to stop hostile acts against…

The young may have cultural capital, but it’s older voters who wield the real power

How the economic impact of the pandemic will only deepen the chronic inequalities that exist between generations.

Politicians must tell the truth: we all need to use less energy for the climate

How much energy leaders used in travelling to and from Cop26 is more than an issue of simple political…

Why does sport remain a safe place for racism?

From anti-Semitic football chants to the scandal at Yorkshire Cricket Club, the denial and obfuscation simply has to stop.

Rowan Williams’s Diary: Judging the Booker Prize, the ethics of climate change, and the birth of our first grandchild

I look forward to telling my grandson his birth was toasted within a few hours alongside the 2021 Booker…

Richard Ratcliffe on his hunger strike: “It’s important she knows that I’m there for her.”

The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on why he is starving himself and his message to Boris Johnson.

Theory wars: how postmodernism became weaponised

How did a philosophical movement embracing consumer culture become a target for today’s anti-woke brigade?

The NS Poem: Puffin, the Little Hillyard

A new poem by Suzannah V Evans.

Reimagining Beowulf as a story of female rage

Maria Dahvana Headley’s thrilling feminist translation brings the epic Anglo-Saxon poem into the present political moment.

Reviewed in short: New books from Charlotte Higgins, Jan Grue, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, and Jonn Elledge

Greek Myths by Higgins, I Live a Life Like Yours by Grue, The Library by Pettegree and der Weduwen…

Life as We Made It by Beth Shapiro asks: is “natural” always best?

We might be scared of biotechnology – but this compelling book argues that it’s nothing new, and could help…

Booker Prize-winner Damon Galgut: “South Africa is not a country that speaks with one voice”

The author on racism in the US, the long legacy of apartheid, and why his writing is not influenced…

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tick Tick… Boom! is a meta-musical memoir

Jonathan Larson’s semi-autobiographical play explores the short life of the Broadway great through song.

In his care crisis documentary, Ed Balls shows he’ll do anything to get on TV

Truly, the mind boggles at the thought of what Balls might do next in his quest to become a…

At the O2, New Order prove their energy, purpose and Mancunian wit remains

The band may be older and without Peter Hook, but they are still adored by a loyal fan base…

In the wake of a locked-down year, the seasons feel out of kilter

I reacquaint myself with the patterns and shades of the trees in my neighbourhood, before they bare their branches…

In the consulting room, the doctor isn’t always the one giving the reassurance

I realised that Cherry, who had recently lost both her husband and her vision, wanted me to know that…

Sunday, mid-afternoon, and the doorbell rings. It could only be a bailiff

Walking back from the seafront I passed a hotel that had a sign in the window saying “Receptionist wanted”.…

How I found strength in the body I discounted as a child

PE lessons were a ritual humiliation. But now I see exercise is empowerment.

This England: Sweating the small stuff

This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…

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Brandon Taylor Q&A: “My theme tune is Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat major. It’s melancholy and very gay”

The author on Northrop Frye, the joy of drafts, and the dubious enterprise of idolising political heroes.