Mohsin Hamid Q&A: “Death can do us the one service of treating others better“
The writer talks Game of Thrones, the perils of free speech and universal passports.
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The rise of the radical left
Had Sherlock Holmes gone into medicine, he’d have been a dermatologist
There are hundreds of different rashes, each with tell-tale signs that, with careful observation, can lead clinicians to a…
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Fergie on her life as the Black Eyed Peas’ “featured female”
She was the lead singer of the world’s third richest band, but Fergie’s role has since been downplayed by…
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A leak in my leather boots necessitates some sensational silver emergency footwear
They weren’t exactly Doc Martens: they were vegan Doc Martens.
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For some of us, the pleasure of eating ice cream had to be learned
For the rest – why not think less about what you eat, and more about why?
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Bombshell is the incredible tale of the Hollywood actress who revolutionised modern communications
Embarrassed by her “trivial” career, Hedy Lamarr set about inventing technology to defeat the Nazis in WWII.
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Rarely is theatre’s fourth wall broken so jaggedly as in Bryony Lavery’s play, Frozen
Ralph, a serial rapist and murderer of children, chattily soliloquises about the corpses and torture-porn videos stored in his lock-up…
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BBC Radio 4’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is endlessly three-dimensional
The series’s star, Irish actor Andrew Scott, might just be the 21st century’s Peter Lorre.
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Having feared the worst from the BBC’s Civilisations reboot, I was pleasantly surprised
The series, fronted by Schama, Mary Beard and David Olusoga, is more diverse and relativist than its predecessor.
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Every detail of A Fantastic Woman is brilliantly expressive
The vibrant style and intelligent characterisation is typical of its Chilean director, Sebastián Lelio.
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Jessie Greengrass’s Sight is a wondrous tale packed with Freud and psychoanalysis
Sight would have been a stunning realist novel in its own right, without all the additional historical material.
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The jokey nature The Growth Delusion is at odds with its serious economic arguments
Each chapter of David Pilling’s book begins with a wearily cheery anecdote.
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Jim Crace’s The Melody is a haunting novel set outside the boundaries of traditional realism
On the surface Crace’s language seems for the most part unadorned, but the adornment here is in the melody…
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Brought up by books: Lucy Mangan examines the lifelong impact of childhood reading
“I was always utterly elsewhere,” writes Mangnan, as she navigates Harry Potter, Goodnight Mister Tom and The Hungry Caterpillar.
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Why author Nassim Nicholas Taleb is the ideal public thinker for the age of Trump
The idea of Skin in the Game is straightforward. People who make decisions ought to be exposed to the consequences if…
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Brett Anderson’s childhood memoir, Coal Black Morning, details years of struggle before Suede’s fame
The book terminates at the 200-page mark, just as the band receive their first hysterical reviews.
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Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment refashioned the idea of what a novel could be
By the 1860s Dostoevsky had been orphaned, imprisoned, conscripted and widowed. Lumbered with debts and immersed in the nihilism…
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China’s lucky leader wins again: the secrets of Xi Jinping’s success
Xi occupies the leadership at a time when the struggle of the past seven decades is coming to fruition.
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Why the old left media is struggling in the age of Corbyn
After Labour achieved 40 per cent of the vote in the 2017 election, why aren’t left-wing titles managing decline better?
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Is the world really better than ever? Steven Pinker on the case for optimism
The author of Enlightenment Now defends himself from charges of utopianism.
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Commons Confidential: Is George Osborne plotting his political comeback?
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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From Boris Johnson to Donald Trump: the long decline of diplomacy
Is the new generation of diplomats committed to traditional forms of statecraft: patient negotiation, coalition-building, strategic vision?
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In a cool public library on Australia’s hottest day, I revisited what the state can offer
What would we stomach paying for separately and explicitly that currently comes bundled as a “free” public service?
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Sex and death in the classical world
From striking coffin portraits to boldly erotic statues, the art of the Romans and Greeks tells us compelling stories…
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“We are hungry, tired, cold and scared. Our children are starving”: life under Assad’s barbaric siege
A United Nations resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire across Syria, agreed on 24 February, has proved meaningless.
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The meaning of Corbynism
Jeremy Corbyn could not have remade the Labour Party witout a coterie of strategies, allies and ideologues. So who…
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Johnny Mercer’s Diary: Macron’s vision, May’s problems, and saving the NHS
The Conservative MP on Donald Trump, Brexit, and what to do to help the health service.
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If the Clinton case happened today, Monica Lewinsky would not feel so alone
For all that social media can be a cesspit, it has also enabled women’s anger to creep past our…
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Who is really controlling Corbyn? No one – but this is what’s driving him
The Labour leader has realised that he actually does want to be prime minister.
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Why Theresa May’s approach to Brexit might actually be the wisest one
A fudge is the only answer to this insurmountable problem.
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Leader: The rise of the radicals
Jeremy Corbyn deserves to be assessed as a potential prime minister.
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