Byzantium baked in Surrey: the extraordinary legacy of Mary Seton Watts
She was dismissed as an artist’s wife – or written out of the story – but now at last…
By
The Middle East's 30 years war
Marie Kondo is more than a tidying guru – she has perfected a radical theory of possessions
Kondo’s mindful consumerism condemns meaningless piles of clutter, but also celebrates the joy material things can bring.
By
Leader: The lessons of Europe’s Thirty Years War
In the West, the temptation for many is to turn away from events in the Middle East. How can…
By
The Chinese dream drifts on undisturbed
China’s economic statistics obscure a reality in which big-city dreams still come true.
By
My brother, president Bernard
Meet the failed Green MP Larry Sanders, brother of US politician Bernie.
By
In Scotland’s new era, nothing can dent the SNP
The defining divide is no longer between left and right but between unionist and nationalist.
By
The legal aid cuts are ideological. Let’s start fighting them now
Any of us might need a lawyer one day – so ignore the silly wigs and defend them.
By
From polyfilla to chicken curry: my most disgusting meals ever
Some people shudder at the thought of jellied eels, or blanch if an oyster approaches. Not I.
By
Under the hammer and sickle: David Aaronovitch’s Party Animals
How much of David Aaronovitch’s choleric anger at the left, his determination to establish the essentially self-deceiving nature of…
By
The perfect drugs for you
Why do some drugs work for so few people – and what can we do about it?
By
Tehran comes in from the cold
Washington’s rocky détente with Iran has been one of the most important geopolitical stories of the 21st century. What’s…
By
I won’t forget the man I saw outside the family planning clinic, rosary in hand
I find it hard to hate pro-life protestors – but I’m not in County Down, where a 21-year-old is…
By
Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth: How Europe’s exiled intellectuals ended up on a Belgian beach
In choosing to take up this story in the summer of 1936, Weidermann finds a moment of relative calm…
By
David Cameron’s English lessons, waiting for Corbyn, and the Tories’ self-squeezing mop
Sluggish Labour and the pollsters’ postmortem.
By
Could the success of Making a Murderer ever be repeated?
Making a Murderer makes me heartsick, but it was clearly a labour of love – unlike Channel 4’s Manchester’s Serial Killer?
By
Films like Spotlight imply absolution for their viewers – but come up short
Spotlight (15) and The Big Short (15) take on moral issues, but leave one more angry at sub-prime cinema than…
By
If you were told you had only a few months to live, what would you do?
One of the most humbling experiences of my career was witnessing the quiet dignity with which Ian forgave Carol.
By
Han Kang’s Human Acts chronicles the tragedy of ordinariness violated
Human Acts deals with the obliteration, both physical and psychic, of hundreds of its own citizens by the South…
By
“On the Existing State of Things”: a new poem by Simon Armitage
From Virgil, the Aeneid, Book VI.
By
Little earthquakes: In The Outrun, you want to go wherever Amy Liptrot takes you
Redemption-through-nature is now a literary subgenre, and The Outrun will no doubt sit alongside Richard Mabey’s Nature Cure and Helen Macdonald’s H Is for…
By
Commons Confidential: It should’ve been me
Osborne’s make-up, Cameron’s sugar and a Labour rivalry.
By
Henning Mankell’s Quicksand is a grave, yet intensely beautiful, book
The chief strength of this book – and what makes it such a beautiful, moving document – is in…
By
The pleasures of being a dedicated follower of football fashion
What do players wear on the pitch? Trends seem to come and go.
By
Call an Uber and order your seaweed now
Norin your wildest dreams: the industry is coming up with dozens of different ways to eat the stuff.
By
Why are so many on the left embarrassed by patriotism?
If Labour is to succeed, it must recognise the possibility of patriotic socialism – and stop other parties monopolising…
By
As a child, Barry Humphries heard England through its music
Humphries arrived in England in 1959, just as London was exploding into life.
By
The reaction to David Bowie’s death exposed the dangers of overestimating the innovator
Are we inclined to overestimate the innovator – the first, the forerunner, the anticipator of the zeitgeist – and…
By
The absolute redundancy of the human being troubles me
It’s clearly bothering Philip Pullman, too.
By
In Julian Barnes’ The Noise of Time, Shostakovich is chopped up and hemmed in
Julian Barnes’ latest novel is an attempt at the crystalline, obliquely passionate historical novel as practised by Penelope Fitzgerald.
By
How class war underpinned the laughs in Dad’s Army
What makes Dad’s Army so enduring? The answer might have a lot to do with its surprising depth of…
By