A double American Awakening
Katrina Gulliver delves into two new publications entitled ‘American Awakening’, and discovers that one is an exhortation, the other an ironic description of the current process of politics and society
Mugabe and Me
From bonding over jokes about Jesuit teachers to becoming a persona non grata, David Smith recalls his relationship with Robert Mugabe
Dumping on Trump
Borders, the body politic and the last inauguration
Scars: stories of human resilience
Scars affect how we are seen and are often imbued with negative connotations – but instead of seeing a scar, can we see a story?
Six ways to make things better
Bringing back the Net Book Agreement would be a good start for badly-paid authors
Primary sauces
Lisa Hilton savours a timeless French bistro in Pimlico that displays no timidity with the ladle
Why Damien Hirst is the perfect artist for the pandemic
Damien Hirst’s work encapsulates the sterility, isolation and obsession with death of these times, says Alys Denby
Murders for late February
From countryside crimes to mysteries on the waves, Jeremy Black recommends further reading from the British Library Crime Classics collection
How the rise of digital technology facilitated lockdown
Philosopher Mark Sinclair warns against the slippery slope of technological thinking
The danger of rewriting history
There is a concerted attempt to reconstruct what children are taught about their history
Cheer leaders
Opera unswervingly believes in the potential for a divine spark in humans, says Robert Thicknesse