Picturing Colonial Africa
Alexander Adams reviews Postcards from Africa: Photographs of the Colonial Era, by Christraud M. Geary
Hidden London
Hidden London’s evocative photos of dereliction will fascinate commuters and tourists alike
Banksy and the triumph of banality
How the shallow culture warrior hoodwinked a generation
Airline Maps: A century of art and design
An enjoyable visual book that acts as a history of aviation
Cancel the Turner
It looks like it was made by artists who don’t like art and chosen by judges who don’t either
Painting by numbers
Alexander Adams counts the cost of female artistic success
Most Read
The establishment is still living in an immigration fantasy land
It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
On Britain as a capitalist command economy
It is neither neoliberal nor socialist but a secret third thing
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
Louis Through
The left-leaning media has lost its moral and institutional authority
The imprudence of Dame Prue
Dame Prue Leith is spreading errors about assisted suicide
Warm home, wrong decision
Ministers are once again choosing the most politically convenient response to rising energy costs, not the most effective one
The EU’s immigration asymmetry
Ten years on, the EU still hasn’t learned Brexit’s hard lesson on migration
Heart of darkness
Alexander Adams encounters an unflinching master of sex and death in Vienna
Britain will be worse without hereditary peers
The expulsion of the hereditaries is neither fair nor pragmatic
Wrestling with realignment
Labour will use the Irish Sea border as an excuse to realign with the EU’s rules
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is a masterclass in self-defeat
Labour’s tobacco crackdown will fuel crime, hurt retailers, and push smokers towards worse habits
Ant & Dec: heroically bland
Clear separation between private and public selves is faintly refreshing
An artful chip
Any penalty is at heart a psychological battle between taker and keeper
The next chapter for The Critic
A request — and an opportunity!