Cheeky blinder
Isobel Williams’s treatment of selected poems is literary charcuterie, as neat as it is naughty
Thick as Thebans
Frederic Raphael reveals how Paul Cartledge makes the case for a central historical role for Oedipus’s home town
Public Enemy Number whatever
Frederic Raphael defends his friend, the writer Joseph Epstein, latest victim of America’s cancel culture for daring to mock Jill Biden’s doctorate
A letter to Jesus
Frederic Raphael poses some pertinent questions to the son of God
Wheesht Spa
The Guardian would prefer it if women kept their mouths shut
Green gift for China
Failing climate policies create international discord that benefits no one but China
Please sit down
Take a moment to enjoy your plot, says Hephzibah Anderson
Feminist fallacies: Women need to calm down
Feminists will only “chill out” when male violence and harassment is eradicated
We, as a people, will get to the Borisland
Boris invites us to Utopia – where he is World King
Self-made demoniacs
Beware of pointing the finger, even at the devil
Where in the world
In the post-pandemic world, travel is all in the mind
The way forward
I’m proud that Britain is known as “TERF Island”
Cross wires
For Britain it’s sovereignty, for the EU it’s a niggle around sausages
Round Midnight: Dutilleux, Merlin, Schoenberg (Erato)
This is razzle-dazzle entertainment; keep it by your bedside