The myth of the Victorian Christmas
Our values today are of consumerism and instant gratification, inherited from our Victorian forebears
Bring back bawdiness
Bawdy humour and the pantomime go together like sausages and mash, whatever you make of that banger
The knife-wielding obituarist
Tom Sutcliffe’s obituary of composer Stephen Sondheim was ill-judged and vindictive
Male authors: the sun also sets
Give up writing, men – the world will be a happier place when you do
What happened to sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll?
Music today is anodyne compared to the heydays of Britpop and the sixties and seventies
John Saumarez Smith: a bibliophile and a gentleman
The Heywood Hill bookseller has died
Good-natured amateurishness
British musical theatre has nothing on the American slickness
Egotist ergo sum
Just stage Cyrano with a great actor breaking wind in a corner, and we’ll all be happy
Cancelling Terry Gilliam (again)
Gilliam is now 80, and seems as cheerily intent on causing trouble and controversy as ever
Grubbing a living
These two books show that it has always been the preserve of the unscrupulous to peddle their wares to the gullible and salacious
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Tame Impala fails to impress
unconquered by a
taste of Crusader food
Gary Stevenson is wrong about wealth taxes
The popular economist is irritating, but more importantly he is mistaken
What is wrong now was wrong before
Julia Gillard should not pretend that the “unintended consequences” of the gender debate were unknowable
Ethnic minorities are abandoning Labour
It is not just Muslim voters who have been abandoning the Labour Party
How to fix the economy
A repentant ex-financial trader tells all
Literary freedom is in the gutter
The disappearance of a praiseful review for a “cancelled” writer is as disturbing as it is bizarre
RIP New Labour?
Keir Starmer’s failure should mark a decisive break with a failed consensus
Out with the old?
Reform seems to be thriving, and Labour seems to be losing, but what can actually change?
The man who knew too little
Faced with Mandelson, Starmer offers a bold defence: he didn’t know, and that’s what makes him blameless
Amazing Grace? Meh, it was OK
If there is a reason to see this play, it is Ralph Fiennes
Ban their benefits and deport them
Our interview with Zia Yusuf
Facing demons
On the highs and lows of demonic infestation
What the reparations debate says about Britain
Social and ideological shifts mean that we face an increasingly divided future
The praises of a neglected vegetable
Summer calls for cold cucumbers
The right moment?
Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage are offering some cause for optimism — but is it enough?
The old age elephant in the room
Does Andy Burnham seriously think that he can fix social care?