Magazine

The bones that built Britain

Winchester Cathedral’s mysterious “bone chests” tell a story of how warring kings and queens forged a new nation.

Maggie Smith steals the show in The Miracle Club

The 88-year-old actress is a delight in this Irish film – conveying so much humour, and contempt.

Jon Fosse and the art of tedium

The Norwegian author’s masterwork Septology finds a mysterious beauty in repetition.

The Conservative conference can’t take its eyes off Farage

Your dose of gossip from the Manchester Central Convention Complex.

Letter of the week: Category errors

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Cleo Watson reveals the dark arts of electioneering

In How to Win a Campaign, the former Boris Johnson aide gathers wisdom from Dominic Cummings and other political puppeteers.

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Rishi Sunak is demolishing the centre he once embodied

The Prime Minister has signalled that technocratic pragmatism has had its day. This is the return of politics.

Justin Welby: “It’s better to be woke than asleep”

The Tories decry his interventions; others say he’s too conservative. Can the Archbishop of Canterbury unite a fraying Church?

Why Sam Bankman-Fried’s deluded world-view matters

His utilitarianism reflects the culture of Silicon Valley, which wields great power over how we relate to one another.

The challenges and threats for Labour in the world to come

A patriotic and outward-looking Starmer government could rebuild Britain’s alliances and international standing.

What if China invaded Taiwan?

Keir Starmer has said little about his approach to foreign policy. But if he wins the next election, his premiership…

My dinner with Putin

Also this week: party conference dress codes and a troubled peace in the Balkans.

The Tories are driving themselves to distraction

A commitment to the car is a commitment to economic precarity.

Sharon Graham: “Labour is too cautious. It has been immobilised”

The general secretary of Unite reflects on a new era for workers.

Among the believers

Labour gathers in Liverpool as a government-in-waiting. But can Keir Starmer negotiate the traps being set for him?

A train line to nowhere

Rishi Sunak’s announcement that the northern leg of HS2 is to be cancelled combines farce with tragedy.

Lydia Davis’s war on Amazon

The short-story writer on why the tech giant’s profit-seeking is corrupting culture.

This England: Gargoyle wars

This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain –…

Trapped in the AI echo chamber

Mustafa Suleyman and his fellow artificial intelligence cheerleaders now say their inventions could destroy us. Should we believe them?