Bumptious, bitchy and belligerent
This evocation of London literati in wartime is a bombshell of a first book
In praise of meritocracy
Grammar schools, Tony Crosland and the Encounter club
Michel Foucault: the prophet of pederasty
Daniel Johnson says the fact that Foucault scholars now overlook his advocacy for sex with boys shows the great libertine failed to overturn Judaeo-Christian morality
Resurrect Reagan
In the wake of Trump, US conservatives must regain the moral high ground
The broken circle
A remarkable group of intellectuals in pre-war Vienna used philosophy to explain the scientific progess of their time — until they were halted by murder and Nazism
Defender of the faith
Daniel Johnson remembers Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, wise and generous friend, guide and mentor
Elegant defender of lost causes
Daniel Johnson recalls the colourful life of Sir Peregrine Worsthorne
Are empires always evil?
Daniel Johnson says Spanish imperialism left a legacy defying simplistic analysis
Making sense of evil
Forced to flee her native Germany, Hannah Arendt is finally celebrated there in a major exhibition
How I discovered Germany
Daniel Johnson on how he found a lost love for the Germans
“Will this do?”
Johnson’s statement on Afghanistan was, as ever, a masterpiece of bare adequacy
Pay poor countries to take refugees
A nobel prize winner tackles a growing problem
Massacre made-to-order
Perhaps Jake Davison killed those people because he could, not because he was an incel
All double dutch
Andrew Cusack says the influence of the Netherlands’ seaborne empire can still be felt around the world, from Manhattan and South Africa to modern Sri Lanka
The Passion of Ken Loach
Expelled from the Labour party, Loach can once again present himself as a rebel
No exceptions for single-sex wards
But can’t we agree to make more space for transsexuals?
Fifth Column
Goldsmiths University wants to topple the men who saved England
Another Boris and me
Boris Yeltsin’s path to the end of the Soviet Union, and the dawn of a new Russia that led, unerringly, to the despotic power we see today
Boris – an optimist even in military defeat
Boris brooks no insult of our hardworking men and women in khaki and pinstripe
The Diary of Dilyn the Dog
As told to Robert Hutton