Best of the year that was
Put down the pandemic novels: Here’s my favourite fiction of 2020
Timelessness trumps timely
What we have is pure storytelling delight, a page-turner that works forwards and backwards as the reader fills in the gaps
Catnip for culture lovers
Contrasting works from a veteran master of invention and two newer faces who blur fact and fiction
Appealing and not-so appealing
If Martin Amis isn’t entertaining you on every page, then what’s the point of him?
Don’t worry, novelists are still envious and bitter
Unlike Douglas Murray, John Self thinks the satirical novel isn’t dead
Small, but perfectly formed
John Self examines three varied, emotionally satisfying novels that together come in at less than the length of a single Mantel
Matters of life and death
John Self reviews Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell, The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams, and The End of Me by Alfred Hayes
Men and women and men
John Self reviews Sorry for Your Trouble by Richard Ford, This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill and Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
Of men and birds
John Self reviews Enter The Aardvark by Jessica Anthony
The danger of naive humanitarianism
The rejection of force is complacent and unsustainable
You were warned
Badenoch’s election means bad news for the Tories
Less than the sum of its parts
Eugene Onegin, Royal Opera
Dress code
How did Starmer not know how it would look? (The donation, not the clothes)
An orderly and civilised society
The biggest missing idea in British politics
Take a bow
This season’s must-have neckwear is a sartorial two-fingered salute to life
The election is still Trump’s to lose
His performance has been weak but his advantages are many
Don’t trust the Runnymede Trust
The law is too indulgent of political charities
England is not yet lost
Where else would you rather be from?
Could there be a Reform revolution?
Reform’s Welsh Conference brimmed with optimism — but can that be translated into success?
Why shouldn’t we discriminate against people’s beliefs?
It is not the same as discriminating on the basis of race or sex
