What’s behind that enigmatic smile?
The author of a new novel about the Mona Lisa explores the history of the world’s most famous painting
It’s time to burst the red balloons
How did Europe’s wealthiest state come to finance the greatest tyrant of the 21st Century?
Australia is not a goldmine
Trade with Australia is good for Britain, but it can’t replace Europe
The Critic Books Podcast: The Restless Republic
What happened in the decade Britain was without a monarch?
Use your words, Will
The feminist fix: Smith’s rationale is too close for comfort for many survivors of domestic abuse
Trojan charities
Institutional drift leftwards does not have to be inevitable
Studio: The English Baroque
Great architecture emerges as much from tension as coherence
Why do women bear the brunt of literary censorship?
Cancellation is the modern manifestation of public shaming culture
Bring back the supermodel
We’ve said goodbye to glamour and gone from Kate Moss to Lottie Moss
Going deep on the river
Make no mistake, the boat race is a blood sport
Pomp and circumstance
A Venetian Coronation, The Gabrieli Consort, St John’s Smith Square
I’m done with po-faced politicians
We have long since lost the spirit of 1983