Sarah Phillimore summarises the events from the first day of the Bell v Tavistock appeal

The Tolkien society is scanning the author’s work for signs of cishetero amatonormativity

Jeremy Black talks to Graham Stewart about how Britain’s armed forces adapted to the challenges of fighting the Second World War

If this stuttery, scatterbrained autist can become an activist, there really is no excuse for anybody else

For Boris there’s no difficulty transitioning from panel shows to PMQs

It’s impossible to hear Eliot’s meditations and not be reminded of our current national ordeal

Tim Abrahams says fans of Modernism should accept sensitive redevelopment

Anti-carceral activists want to shut prisons, but ignore sexual offenders

Will a newly assertive Beijing seek to “decolonise” Hong Kong of the last visible signs of its colonial past?

Dan Hitchens reports on the groups who are taking the battle for free speech forward by speaking truth to power

Clandon Park remains a shell after it was gutted by fire six years ago. Now the National Trust is telling a one-sided story about its past

Robert Thicknesse ruminates on The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko

Social media “platforms” such as Twitter and Facebook plainly are publishers.
They should be held to account as such

On a phrase used by people with brains of tinsel

I’m delighted that Meghan Markle has decided to stop causing controversy and embark on the more sedate pursuit of a literary career

An oyster without grit

Reading Doom might not save us, but it leaves us with a better appreciation of the complex politics of catastrophe

From midnight Parisian walks and femmes fatales to jazz and corruption, Jeremy Black rounds up the best murders

Anne Sebba’s book on Ethel Rosenberg is a towering memorial

Was Iceland responsible for the French Revolution, the moon landing and the discovery of America?

Swift’s latest project is even more interesting than the imaginary motherhood album she pinned her hopes on

Over these past months, one has lost count of the number of humble showbiz folk selflessly going to the trouble of taking photos/videos of themselves being jabbed

What the opening of the Edo Museum of West African Art means for the potential restitution of 2,807 historical bronze artefacts

Christopher Silvester on a documentary with a solely animalistic cast

Claudia Savage-Gore loses sleep plotting a stealth-lavish birthday party

Enduring pale, greasy salmon in the spiritual home of the trout pout

Celebrate the return of normal life, but choose your guests with care

Thomas Woodham-Smith meets the go-to man for classic English furniture