The Tinder dating app isn’t just about sex – it’s about friendship, too. And sex
The lines between sex, love and friendship are blurrier than ever, as I found out quickly while using the…
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The Brexit odd squad
With everything from iPhones to clothing turning monochrome, is the West afraid of colour?
If modern design appears particularly achromatic, it only reflects the “chromophobia” which courses through the history of Western thought.
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Chuka Umunna: Why tolerance is not enough
Against the Trumpification of politics.
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As we reach the 50th anniversary of China’s Cultural Revolution, are we seeing echoes of Mao?
With the official verdict being that Mao was “70 per cent good, 30 per cent bad”, his legacy is never…
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The struggles of Huma Abedin
On the behind-the-scenes story of Hillary Clinton’s closest aide.
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Gordon Brown’s book shows the UK can survive outside Europe – but can flourish inside it
Britain: Leading, Not Leaving argues that Britain’s leadership could help Europe became a safer place with a stronger economy.
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Whit Stillman on Love & Friendship, his postmodern love letter to Jane Austen
Austen’s work has already been a launch-pad for literary spin-offs, but Stillman’s film – and accompanying novel – do something intriguingly…
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“The Anatolian Fertility Goddess“: a poem by Fiona Pitt-Kethley
Across the Golden Horn in Karakoy. . .
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I didn’t expect to have to choose between a boyfriend and Judi Dench – but it happened
He told me I’d spoiled the cruise by not paying him enough attention. But what was I to do when…
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Russian pools, despatches from the Pole, and disagreeing with my son Boris on Brexit
My week, from Moscow to Westminster Hour.
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Snakebites and body parts
The city at the edge of an apocalypse: a love letter to Los Angeles.
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How Ken Loach’s radical vision won him a second Palm d’Or
In Loach’s films, authenticity is everything, and when his quest for realism pays off, there’s nothing as raw in…
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Sometimes, it is the patient who makes the doctor feel better
I walked through the waiting room, out of the front door, and found Alan basking in the sunshine with Jess, his…
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Why do we talk to ourselves? A new book investigates the voices in our heads
The Voices Within by Charles Fernyhough is an ear-opening book – and an important corrective to myths about schizophrenia, the brain and…
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How Tony Blair’s disingenuous line on Iraq eroded our faith in politicians
Not the Chilcot Report by Peter Oborne reveals how Blair exagerrated evidence from the intelligence services to parliament – and…
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Thus Bad Begins confirms Javier Marías as a master of the novel form
Marías’ masterful expression of his characters’ psychological weather, combined with Margaret Jull Costa’s gifted translation, makes for rewarding reading.
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She is a beauty and he a beast; I can’t not intervene
I’ve got to say something before the train doors open. But what?
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Why an expanding middle class is no guarantee of political freedom
Wealth creation, the free market and a bourgeois way of life are not a package deal. In fact, they…
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Be transported to an ash-shrouded Iceland with Sjón’s new novel Moonstone
Moonstone is in some ways Sjón’s most straightforward book – but there is a wonderful netherworld quality to its ashen Reykjaví.
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So many teenage girls don’t want to identify as girls any more. And who can blame them?
Among internet-literate teenagers, gender has become the primary way to challenge the mores of older generations.
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Tony Blair might be a toxic figure – but his influence endures
Politicians at home and abroad are borrowing from the former prime minister’s playbook.
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Clive James’s intriguing poetic response to Proust
What is James trying to do? He jokes that he has made a good living out of dying.
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With the BBC Food’s collection under threat, here’s how to make the most of online recipes
Do a bit of digging, trust your instincts – and always read the comments.
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Last Whites of the East End reveals the complex effects of immigration
Is it possible to feel uprooted from a place you’ve never left? Plus: Going Going Gone: Nick Broomfield’s Disappearing Britain.
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Was the BBC’s World on the Move trying to cheer up coverage of the refugee crisis with a beautiful woman?
Angelina Jolie looked nervous as she addressed the threatre. But if anyone should feel foolish, it ought to be…
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A Marxist at ITV, the Hitch’s deathbed “conversion” and the antibiotic resistance crisis
The week in the media, from drugs to pub irregulars.
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