Leader: A Mad Max Brexit
Brexit won’t mean being “plunged into a Mad Max-style world”, according to David Davis.
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Sunni vs Shia
Joan Baez Q&A: “My earliest memory? In utero, swirling around in this wet goo“
Joan Baez was born in Staten Island, New York, in 1941. One of the great US folk artists, she…
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Amazon has finally got behind the scenes at Man City. I did the same with Spurs 40 years ago
I conned – sorry, talked – my way in, persuading the chairman that the manager had agreed, and vice…
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Watching The Day of the Jackal, my hunger returned. Which was when the trouble began
A few seconds later, and I am looking blearily at the flames roaring out of the toaster.
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My songs haven’t been on a radio playlist in 20 years, so I have to admit I’m punching the air
It never stops being exciting hearing yourself on the radio.
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In the battle for a deeply divided Britain, universities are now the front line
History suggests that when the educated masses feel their future has been stolen, revolutions happen.
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“D’ye want to see what I have in me bag here?” asked the tinker.
Frightened, I shook my head. “Of course you do,” he grinned, opening the sack.
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Carey Mulligan is oddly unemotional in Dennis Kelly’s powerful new play, Girls & Boys
If you intend to see Girls & Boys, don’t read this review.
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Netflix’s surprising Queer Eye revival dismantles toxic masculinity with self-acceptance
In a new social context, can a show that formally emphasises differences between straight and gay men have the…
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Jacob Rees-Mogg is no less conceptual art than Gilbert & George walking around Whitechapel
Rees-Mogg, in his pinstriped shirt, is a profoundly unserious man pretending to be serious.
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In Troy: Fall of a City, all the men look as if they’re in a Calvin Klein ad
Rachel Cooke reviews Troy and 24 Hours in Police Custody.
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Margot Robbie saves the ice-skating biopic I, Tonya from sheer sensationalism
Craig Gillespie directs with all the subtlety of a baton-wielding thug but has made one brilliant decision in Margot…
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American outsider: Denis Johnson’s troubled journey to greatness
Denis Johnson’s posthumous The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is not only remarkable as a document of a great…
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When They Call You a Terrorist: the extraordinary memoir by a Black Lives Matter founder
Patrisse Khan-Cullors’ harrowing and yet uplifting work demonstrates that collective organising is the only thing that has truly changed the…
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Two books about the Scottish-English border remind us of our impermanence
Graham Robb’s The Debatable Land and Rory Stewart’s The Marches dig into the history and culture of the borderlands.
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The NS Poem: Saint of Labour
A new poem by Kathleen Winter.
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Zadie Smith’s essays reveal how success is not all it’s cracked up to be
Feel Free: Essays shows the limitations of a star literary career – and the freedom of a remarkable critical mind.
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Holocaust memoir Maybe Esther is a mesmerising work of reconstruction and reflection
Katja Petrowskaja turns a venerable literature of commemorative, respectful wartime suffering on its head.
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Unenlightened thinking: Steven Pinker’s embarrassing new book is a feeble sermon for rattled liberals
To think of this book as any kind of scholarly exercise is a category mistake. The purpose of Pinker’s…
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Malta: an island of secrets and lies
Business is booming in the tiny former British colony. But stories of corruption and assassination are filling the newspapers,…
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Blood, blades and bitter: how ice hockey bloomed in 1980s Britain
In ailing northern towns, amateur ice hockey brought violence and validation to a generation of young men.
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Qasem Soleimani and the remaking of the Middle East
As the leader of the notorious Qods force, Soleimani was the key figure in Iran’s projection of military power…
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Why educating girls is the best cure for the world’s problems
Female education can reduce population pressures, boost economic growth, curb infant mortality and improve child nutrition.
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Why feminists should be the first to praise ethical porn
Women should be empowered and supported within the industry, rather than being made to feel ashamed about their jobs.
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A Marxist case against Brexit: Trade union leader Manuel Cortes on what Labour should do
“As Jeremy listens to people, I’m sure he could change his mind,” says the pro-EU Corbynite.
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Commons Confidential: Tories turn on “Lord Snooty”
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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South Africa’s new dawn: How Jacob Zuma’s misrule was ended
“We are going to look back at the past ten years and think of it as a lost decade.”
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How student survivors of the Florida school shooting are using social media to demand change
“As teenagers, we know how to use social media and we know how to take advantage of it.”
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The sooner Donald Trump is forced to fire White House chief of staff John Kelly, the better
Don’t expect the four-star general to stand up to his bullying, lying boss.
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Smart and politically alert, Black Panther will inspire a generation of film students
Plus, Wakanda has a border control system to make Theresa May swoon.
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Jan Morris’ Diary: The poetry of warships, my lover in the afterlife, and kindness as an end in itself
The thing about kindness, for a start, is that everybody understands it.
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The death of Ernest Hecht, the last great émigré publisher, marks the end of a special era
The founder of Souvenir Press lived a varied, fulfilling and, in many ways, thrilling life.
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Labour’s Corbynsceptics need to build bridges – but they can’t agree on how
For a minority of Labour MPs, Jeremy Corbyn’s growing hegemony and Tom Watson’s acquiescence are no laughing matter.
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Leader: University tuition fees and the common good
We do too little to help the poorest ascend the education escalator to a life of more opportunity.
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Alan Johnson Q&A: “To thine own self be true? I failed dismally!“
The former Labour home secretary talks dystopian literature, Paul McCartney, and being a man of letters.
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Meet The Shuffler, Edinburgh’s strangest taxi driver
One passenger likened his experience to watching a stand-up show.
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One last scoot round the holiday home and I see the kids when they were little, buzzing about
The room is silent and stuffy, but it’s filled with the ghosts of holidays past.
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A house that throws books, a flashing router – and the majestic precision of Pete and Dud
One always wants what one does not have.
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Imitation game: the parrot that learned to mimic a ringtone
The sound of a son calling his mother again and again, and the sound of her not answering.
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Against: is Ben Whishaw’s Luke a Holy Fool, or just another Silicon Valley narcissist?
Playwright Christopher Shinn portrays America as a sick society which doesn’t even know it.
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The hidden classical gem broadcasting from above a charity shop in South London
Star of the volunteer presenting pool on Classical Wandsworth is 20-something Caitlin Benedict.
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Detroit is a harrowing, relentless and intensely angry film – as it should be
Shortly after the first Molotov cocktail is lobbed, the city is engulfed in flames and fury.
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Isis drama The State shows the sheer stupidity of these young fanatics
Channel 4’s show, written and directed by Peter Kosminsky, has a horribly convincing veracity.
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The cult of Gemma Collins, and why we need celebrities who are ordinary
The reality TV star introduced herself as “best known for too much bronzer and always being on a diet”.
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Death puts all other subjects in the shade: memoirs by Robert McCrum and Maggie O’Farrell
Every Third Thought and I Am, I Am, I Am tackle life’s most serious topic.
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We That Are Young is set in contemporary India, but borrows from King Lear
Preti Taneja’s novel concerns the serving of justice – who gets what, as opposed to who deserves what.
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The Dark Mountain Project and a plan to save the planet through writing
Many of the pieces in eco-anthology Walking on Lava are as sad as they are angry.
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Denis Kearney: Champion of Labor
A new poem by André Naffis-Sahely.
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After Kathy Acker: the life and death of a taboo-breaking punk writer
Biographer Chris Kraus restores Acker to her rightful place, by taking her writing seriously.
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History of Wolves is a chilling meditation on the challenges of bearing witness
Emily Fridlund’s Man Booker-longlisted novel is full of arresting detail.
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Into the Grey Zone: can one really be conscious while in a coma?
Neuropsychologist Adrian Owen’s work raises many more questions than it answers.
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Ghosts of the Tsunami: what the disaster in Japan left behind
Richard Lloyd Parry’s book explores the damage to a community that had “suffered an exceptional tragedy”.
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The Victorian jihadis: how Kipling and Conan Doyle shaped our Islamist fears
Did popular authors write Islamic State into existence?
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Steve Bannon: how Trump’s dark mastermind fell
In interviews, the chief political strategist compared himself to Darth Vader.
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The new age of the train
It is time to reverse the damage done by Richard Beeching in the 1960s and reopen many of the…
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Sunni vs Shia: the roots of Islam’s civil war
How this conflict – played out in the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia – is destabilising the world.
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Bots on the ground: can the rise of “killer robots” be halted?
Such weapons are already being developed by national militaries and terrorist groups.
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How Jeremy Corbyn would break with Labour’s imperial past
The 70th anniversary of Indian partition should discourage us from romanticising Attlee’s government.
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Is catastrophe the only cure for inequality?
Author Walter Scheidel explains why violence is “the great leveller”.
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The internet dictionary: what does kys mean?
With its resemblance to “kiss”, it looks almost sweet – but it can cause genuine distress.
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Standing up to China’s censors: an attempt to delete history backfires
For years now, the official Chinese position has been that no one was killed in Tiananmen Square.
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The “grown-ups“ in Trump’s White House have been exposed as cowards
Their ongoing presence is complicity in the president’s high crimes and misdemeanours.
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Nick Barley’s Diary: Nicola Sturgeon makes headlines, and a father mourns his son
The First Minister admits that she wishes her party didn’t have the word “national” in its name.
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What should happen to the foreign women and children who joined Isis?
As many as a hundred women are believed to have left Britain for Isis territory since 2013.
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Tory right-wingers are furious about Big Ben – but it’s their time that’s running out
They could take both Corbyn and the present moment seriously. Instead, they are arguing about a clock.
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The van attack meme, and how tech giants face up to the alt-right
With every new attack – and the coverage that follows it – the threshold for violence is raised.
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Leader: History is not written in stone
Statues have not been politicised by protest; they were always political.
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