Benjamin Zephaniah: “My first racist attack was a brick in the back of the head”
The late poet on Noam Chomsky, Bob Marley, growing his own veg, and travelling into the future.
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The most powerful man in the world
What to do with all those pensioner footballers, washed up at 35?
A soccer stud farm!
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Perhaps the point of vinyl is not the music but those poignant pops, crackles and hisses
If you’re the right age, these sounds whirl you back in time to those first records you owned.
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I’m back in Scotland and isolated – the only sensible option for me these days
One looks at the news from points further south and despairs.
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Battle Scars: a podcast exposing the horrific reality of modern war
Had enough, have you? Here’s more. It’s the least you can do.
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The Sex Robots Are Coming is nothing more than prurience and voyeurism
Shame on the person – a man, surely? – who commissioned this Channel 4 programme.
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Happy End exposes the areas where class, race, economics and morality intersect
Director Michael Haneke shows how technology has elided the space between public and private lives.
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The Secret Theatre: to what extent should we suspend liberty in return for security?
The key to reading between the lines of Anders Lustgarten’s play is easily to be found in post 9/11 news…
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Little House on the Prairie and its contested political legacy
With her books, Laura Ingalls Wilder forged a myth of the American pioneer.
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The Marvelous Mrs Maisel is a riotous delight – with an irresistible star
The new Amazon show from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is full of period charm.
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Falstaff shows Verdi can be funny – Bryn Terfel has the audience in stitches
This production at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall became more of a one-man show than its composer perhaps intended.
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Hamilton: how Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical rewrote the story of America
Finally arriving in London, the rap masterpiece turns the story of a forgotten founding father into a Shakespearean drama of ambition…
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Suffragists and Santa-killers: the best children’s books of 2017
In Horatio Clare’s Aubrey and the Terrible Ladybirds, a hero must save the polluted world from an enormous snail.
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Canvasing opinions: what can books by Julian Bell and Andrew Marr tell us about painting?
They are the latest to attempt to nail down the slippery nature of paint on canvas.
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Lyndall Gordon’s Outsiders builds links between women writers across the generations
If you are looking for inspiration for the fight, this book will be your companion.
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Red Famine traces the shocking history of Stalin’s war on Ukraine
Anne Applebaum shows beyond doubt that the famine was man-made and ordered for clear political reasons.
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The Story of The Face: how the magazine became an essential yuppie accessory
Paul Gorman’s book seeks to “track the exciting highs and calamitous lows” of the magazine; frankly, I’ve seen more epic…
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Richard Nixon: the Life sheds light on all the president’s demons
John A Farrell’s wonderful biography of the controverial American leader is brimming with wince-inducing vignettes.
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The scars of Catalonia
How a century of mistrust and political incompetence fuelled a secession crisis that could lead to the break-up of…
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The chairman of everything: why Chinese president Xi Jinping will change history
In his first essay for the New Statesman, one of the world’s leading foreign policy experts explores the rise…
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Philandering won’t hold Boris Johnson back – the Westminster scandal has benefited him
Many thought that skeletons might come tumbling out of his closet. The opposite has been the case.
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Can artificial intelligence ever know what’s funny?
You can now play with a keyboard that has been “pre-trained” to riff on topics such as Blue Planet,…
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Mr Bric fears for Brexit Britain: rock star economist Jim O’Neill on what lies ahead
“Talk about the irony: here are we dragging ourselves out with Europe looking better than it has done for…
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Commons Confidential: Is Nick Timothy plotting a political comeback?
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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The legacy of John Betjeman – and the consolation of humour in old age
What is the quickest way to start a punch-up between two British literary critics?
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Why Meghan Markle is the princess to cheer up feminists
Prince Harry’s fiancée has had a successful career – and even stood up to Donald Trump.
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Alex Farquharson’s Diary: How Brexit would have ruined impressionism
The Tate Britain director talks snowmen, Frank Bowling, and art made from alligator blood.
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Even as the Tories stumble, Labour is drifting, rather than marching, towards power
Labour aren’t advancing. This doesn’t mean they aren’t winning.
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The real crisis behind British workers’ low productivity
Spurious figures based on outdated measures are still published, causing regular bouts of national gloom.
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After my mum died, she started leaving me messages
A lot of people have stories of bird-related phenomena right after a loved one dies. For me, it’s parakeets.
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