Magazine

How germs shape history

Jonathan Kennedy’s Pathogenesis reveals how diseases have built and broken empires and economies.

A Tory electoral timebomb

Voters move right with age – this was once regarded as an iron law of politics. The Conservative electorate would…

All it takes to transform me is the warmth of the first rays of the summer sun

I am going to put my nose in lilac and honeysuckle and roses and be generally unbearable with luxuriousness.

Rainn Wilson’s Q&A: “As a child, I found my father wishy-washy and forlorn”

The actor on Star Trek’s James T Kirk, his love of Succession, and how not following advice can make you…

From the war in Ukraine to the life of Roger Deakin: new books reviewed in short

Also featuring Anna Metcalfe’s Chrysalis and Octavia Bright’s This Ragged Grace.

The battle for the soul of London

The capital survived the Blitz only to be attacked by zealous city planners – but its citizens fought back.

The science of fandom

What communities devoted to hero-worship tell us about the psychology of belonging.

Among my life’s highlights is the time I made Martin Amis slap his thigh with laughter

Ever since then, when I have been feeling down, or stupid, or generally undervalued, I have consoled myself with this…

The meaning of Essex

Built for commuters, the county created a brash new consumerist identity. But its success has come at a price.

Reality is a chilling, forensic dramatisation of a whistleblower interrogation

Tina Satter’s verbatim treatment of the FBI’s questioning of a young NSA translator is deeply unsettling.

A garden should primarily be for enjoyment

New gardeners should first ask themselves how they want their space to feel, before seeking advice on what to grow.

An insider’s tale of Tory chaos

Whips, a parliamentary romp by the former No 10 adviser Cleo Watson, is fact barely disguised as fiction.

Letter of the week: Educating Bridget

Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.

Rebuilding industry is a mistake. The West should focus on economic alliances instead

Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is laudable, but decades of decline cannot be reversed in a single presidential term.

Keir Starmer knows his NHS plan will make life harder for a Labour government

The condition of the NHS is not like other political issues, so any politician who promises health reforms had better…

Skinny jeans, plastics, stress: what’s behind the decline in male fertility?

Why scientists are increasingly concerned about sperm.

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What makes a witch?

A new BBC Sounds series explores the tangled roots and modern revival of witchcraft.

A transcendent singalong with Bruce Springsteen in Rome

Also this week: great journalists remembered, and a duck called Puskás.

Suella Braverman is branded a “loose cannon” by unhappy ministers in the Home Office

Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.