The New Statesman guide to the best political fiction: part three
Naomi Alderman, Rachel Reeves, Stuart Maconie and Rowan Williams share their picks.
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Summer double issue
The New Statesman guide to the best political fiction: part two
Contributions from Jess Phillips, Jason Cowley, Andrew Marr and Neel Mukherjee.
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The New Statesman guide to the best political fiction: part one
Featuring favourites from Mary Beard, Tom Watson, George Osborne and Ali Smith.
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David Sedaris Q&A: “Oh, the work I’d do if I weren’t so full of hate for Trump“
The writer and comedian talks House of Cards, abstract expressionism, and the cartoon character Jonny Quest.
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The time I met hot Jesus at the Christian fundamentalist theme park
It has a famous collection of biblical manuscripts to rival Disney World’s animatronic presidents.
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We need to start viewing type 2 diabetes as a lifestyle issue
Once patients are on the medical merry-go-round, there’s virtually no way off.
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How maverick smelliers are reinventing the world of perfume
The sheets of an unmade bed are soaked in a familiar and mildly rebarbative scent.
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The night a man sidled up to me in the dark and asked: “Do you want a pizza?”
If you do not hear from me again, it is because I have, after all, been poisoned.
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The man fighting Donald Trump to preserve America’s national monuments
These treasured places include California’s Giant Sequoia woods, and the Upper Missouri Breaks.
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Elusive sharks, magic carpets, and other summer radio highlights
American singer Beth Ditto on BBC 6 Music is hands down the guest presenter of the season.
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Against the Law: Peter Wildeblood must be one of the bravest men who ever lived
BBC2’s historical gay rights film evokes bewilderment, fear and agonising pain.
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The Big Sick is well meaning, rather than groundbreaking
There’s a chemistry shortfall between the actors, and some limits to Kumail Nanjiani’s range.
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Why you should watch BBC3’s This Country
The show is a masterclass in the idiosyncrasies triggered by rustic boredom.
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Queen Anne shows how gender relations are really power relations
The RSC production leaves you wondering if you have ever seen the real monarch.
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How grime music fell in love with Jeremy Corbyn
It was a pretty unpredictable union – so what was #grime4corbyn, and how did it happen?
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The story of WWII is usually told by men – what about the women on the front line?
All three of these books raise questions about the still problematic idealisation of women in combat.
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H(A)PPY: when a utopia is just a dystopia that’s kidding itself
Nicola Barker’s novel creates a sort of wellness republic, like a year-round Burning Man.
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A marriage of war and peace: the tumultuous world of Lev and Sonya Tolstoy
Andrew Donskov’s Tolstoy and Tolstaya charts the couple’s life in letters.
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Is Hungary the EU’s first rogue state? Viktor Orban and the long march from freedom
As a student activist, Orban helped free Hungary from communism. As its prime minister, he practises “illiberal democracy” and praises…
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Atmospheric carnage: why I love the thrill of summer storms
Their destructive power forces you to recall the vulnerabilities of your human frame.
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Why it’s not too late for baby boomers to open up about their postwar memories
An examination of people’s “unspoken” emotions is missing from recent British history.
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Why Ross Poldark is Blue Labour
Family and hard work are central to a story of pride and dignity once familiar to the Labour movement.
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One night on the Costa del Sol: a true crime story of rape, murder and wrongful conviction
“All I could think of was: why? Why was I here? How had this happened to me, to an…
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I’m a Marxist – we are misunderstood on both the left and right
In these days of identity politics, the ideology remains refreshingly bracing in its view of the world.
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How the Oval regained its shape: the famous cricket ground hosts its 100th Test
The challenge for Surrey is to ensure that the new fans drawn to the stadium in recent years keep…
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Commons Confidential: George Osborne puffs away
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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The race to save Romania’s forests: how illegal loggers lay waste to the wilderness
“Even inside national parks, nothing is safe.”
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Like Djokovic and Federer, the best players know the importance of freshness and rest
The most successful sports stars are seldom the ones who practise the most hours.
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As Trump’s excesses mount, it’s time to reckon with the darker side of Obama’s legacy
The former president deported more than 2.5 million undocumented migrants from the US.
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Is Germany a normal country? Its citizens are finding that a painful question
It needs to seek a balance: neither forgetting its past, nor succumbing to it.
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The BBC pay gap storm shows money, not sex, is now our biggest source of scandal
Employers know what you are worth with far more accuracy than you do.
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Tim Shipman’s Diary
The Sunday Times political editor on poker, pasta – and being called fat by Andrew Marr.
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Swimming in Aleppo: why people still head to the pool in war zones
They cling to time in the water, if they can get it, as a last vestige of the lives…
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Corbyn is personally fireproof, but his manifesto could be torched by the Brexit blaze
There is no evidence that EU migration has depressed wages – but most Labour MPs believe it has.
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What the tragic case of Charlie Gard tells us about the modern world
People now believe medical science can perform miracles, and many search for them online.
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Leader: Corbyn’s second act
Left-wing populism is not enough – Labour must provide a real alternative.
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The East End from the inside
John Claridge’s intimate photographs from the 1960s capture a lost world of wonder and possibility.
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Remembering the personal side of the Olympics, in the pool and out
There was a lot to be learned from Eric the Eel, kicking and flailing his way through the Sydney…
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The Returning Officer: Enid Lapthorn
The 1929 Liberal candidate for Hitchen throws an “American shower party”.
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The best summer reading, as chosen, half cut, from my deckchair
I like my holidays chatty, boozy, and booky – the only problem is what to pack.
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How Rome’s new mayor Virginia Raggi is leading a normality revolution
The first female Roman mayor has promised an end to posturing public figures.
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Why a new Keith Richards documentary doesn’t give enough satisfaction
I wonder whether Julien Temple is stitching up Richards in his documentary The Origin of the Species.
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The biggest divide in politics is not left against right, but liberals against authoritarians
My week, including a Lib Dem membership rise, The Avalanches, and why I’m putting pressure on Theresa May over child…
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Commons confidential: Vive May’s revolution
It’s a risky time to be an old Etonian in the Tory party. . .
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Escape to victory: the refugees who will run at the Rio Olympics
Escaping South Sudan in 2005, Yiech and his family had to eat leaves to stave off hunger. Now, he’s part of…
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The lessons of Finding Dory are commendable, but why make a children’s film so complicated?
Pixar’s latest animation, a sequel to Finding Nemo, gives forgetful fish Dory a lead. Plus: Jason Bourne.
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Philip Lancaster’s War Passion draws on beautiful material – but lacks feeling
With a lot of commemorative art to compete with, the premiere of Lancaster’s new piece could have used, well,…
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Got to catch them all: why is Pokémon Go so popular?
For all its much-publicized perils, the game remains successful. The reason why is surprisingly simple.
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The slacker’s sanctuary: in Berlin, without a job or a plan
A Brexit exile in Berlin tries to adjust to life, and heads to German lessons alongside Polish workers, fashionable Swedes and…
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The great earth-mover: just how capable was Capability Brown?
It’s time we re-examined the legacy of England’s greatest gardener.
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“Return of the Kogarah Kid”: a new poem by Clive James
“From here my ashes go back to the sea / And take my memories of every friend / And…
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Erdogan’s purge was too big and too organised to be a mere reaction to the failed coup
There is a specific word for the melancholy of Istanbul. The city is suffering a mighty bout of something like hüzün at…
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Memory flash: can you teach creative writing?
D B C Pierre ponders whether writing is a teachable subject in his new book, Release the Bats: Writing Your Way…
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Let all the children boogie: how a new Bowie biography took me back to teenage subversion
Thank God Paul Morley’s The Age of Bowie doesn’t try to be an objective, sensible biography.
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Jeremy Corbyn and his opponents are now locked in a permanent struggle
Labour MPs will neither accept Corbyn’s leadership nor abandon the party if he wins again.
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Excitement, hatred and belonging: why terrorists do it
A new book by Richard English suggests that killing can bring its own rewards.
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The news this week: BHS, MI5 and BMWs
A Brexit boon for accountants, knights and peers in disgrace, and more woe at the Guardian.
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Women drop out of sport early and rarely come back – and our society is much the worse for it
The image of sport is ready for a “pivot”, to borrow a phrase from Silicon Valley.
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Leader: On capitalism and insecurity
The truth behind Philip Green’s business practices is out, as Theresa May pledges to ensure the benefits of growth…
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Why Philip Green’s fall should bring down the honours system – but won’t
Sir Shifty may fall in disgrace, but our ridiculous system will endure. No matter what’s happening in the rest…
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