Why is publishing suddenly obsessed with “rebel” women?
A trend of celebrating “nasty”, “badass”, “rebel” women has swept feminist literature. But idolising defiance raises difficult questions about…
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England in the age of Brexit
The Saturday detention
“Welcome to life, Kennedy. It’s often unfair.”
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With plot twists, fearlessness and flair, Russia 2018 shows why the World Cup is still boss
Amid the intrigue, there has been something sport seldom serves up: equality.
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Gypsy Britain: the community behind the media panic
In all the hysteria, the voices of Gypsies themselves are hard to find.
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Jesse Ball’s new novel Census explores loving someone with Down’s syndrome
“I felt, and feel, that people with Down’s syndrome are not really understood.”
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What the story of Catholic persecution in Britain can teach us about populism and prejudice
This not-so-distant mirror shows how political anxieties are displaced on to minorities.
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Thomas Cole: the prophet-painter of America
Thomas Cole’s pictures revealed to his fellow citizens the majesty of their land while warning them of hubris.
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Pelléas et Mélisande at Glyndebourne: ill-conceived and frequently absurd
What a ghastly mess.
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Fun Home at the Young Vic: exuberant, moving and urgent
Unavoidably, some of the subtleties of the original text are lost – but the shift brings positives too.
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How Richard Fairey’s Swordfish plane changed history
If the Swordfish has lived on among British legends of the Second World War, the man whose name the…
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Oliver Parker’s Swimming With Men: a chlorine-scented male spin on Calendar Girls
A throwback to those late-1990s movies about disenfranchised males regaining self-respect through unusual hobbies: The Full Monty and Brassed Off.
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Radio 4 celebrates the NHS at 70
Some of the material dredged up from the archives is glorious.
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Ivor Gurney Goes to War
A new poem by Octavia Lamb.
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The problem with the World Cup on ITV
ITV’s analysis can feel a bit like a breakfast debrief after a stag do: lots of ribbing and hooting…
ByNothing is simple in Alsace, not least its aromatic and fruit-laden wine
Imbued with all the rich complexity of the region’s history.
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Poets of the material world: engineers are the people who make dreams real
An engineer’s achievement of pure utility can also create structures of stunning grace and beauty.
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Travelling 1,000 miles to see a new railway tunnel is routine for the Man in Seat 61
Tunnel “has replaced the best, most scenic hour through the spirals of the high Alps with half an hour in…
ByWhen I think of England alongside Scotland, it suffers by comparison
I googled “repulsive Scottish public figures” and absolutely nothing came up of any use.
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Peak inequality
The gap between the very rich and the rest is wider in Britain than in any other large country in…
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Baroness Trumpington: “I used to watch Neighbours in the House of Lords”
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Gareth Southgate and the new progressive Englishness
What it means to be English in an age of upheaval.
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England rising
How the World Cup and Gareth Southgate’s young, diverse team reawakened a sense of progressive English nationalism.
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Are vloggers exploiting homeless people?
If a YouTuber gives to charity and no one hears about it, it doesn’t make a sound.
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Leader: The Brexit delusion
As the UK is now discovering, there are worse alternatives to membership of an imperfect – but necessary – institution.
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We can’t fight oppression until we accept that weight and height affect how we’re treated
My three rules for criticism: Is it true? Does it need to be said? And would I say it to…
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Gwyneth Williams’s Diary: The Reith Lectures, Beirut with Margaret MacMillan and farewell to Eddie Mair
We talked and then Margaret said, “Well, there’s always war.” At once I knew we had a Reith.
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Adam Smith’s rescue from the libertarian right
In his new book Adam Smith: What He Thought, and Why it Matters, Tory MP Jesse Norman critiques “crony capitalism” – a…
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Commons Confidential: As the Tory civil war rages, who’s looking to jump ship?
Your weekly dose of gossip from Westminster.
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How the remorseless rise of the Swedish far right could leave the country ungovernable
Support for the party, which has its roots in the neo-Nazi movement and once pledged to “keep Sweden Swedish”, surged after…
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Letter of the week: End the stigma over Down’s
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced…
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The Jungle: an urgent play gives a voice to refugees
The squalor – and hope – of the lives of asylum seekers has never been better portrayed.
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She’s awkward, humbled, bruised: but May might have outplayed the hard Brexiteers
The Prime Minister may yet survive Brexit and have another crack at the electorate in 2022.
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How Jacob Rees-Mogg misread the Corn Laws in his warning to Theresa May
Told the PM that she risks the fate of her predecessor Robert Peel, who split the Conservatives and left them…
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Who is Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s new socialist firebrand president?
The election of the former Mexico City mayor sets the nation on a new and uncertain course.
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