Archives
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
Harrison Birtwistle: Chamber works (BIS)
The British composer — still writing at 87 years of age — is an acquired taste
When bad reviews attack
Book reviews are not the preserve of the literary dilettantes — they have real power
Golden boy turned starstruck rube
The self-justifying self-portrait of a journalist who never made it
Gaspingly chic
The accoutrements of smoking are deathly cool
Kiev and Moscow: a tale of two Russias
Ukraine threatens Putin because it offers an alternative version of Russia
Interview: Semyon Bychkov on Ukraine and nationhood
He discusses exile, the horrors of totalitarianism and why Russophobia is not the answer
On and off the road
Jack Kerouac’s reputation should rest on his whole oeuvre — not just his most famous novel
The perils of prosperity
Does the decadent West have the will to defy Putin?
It’s a wrap
London seems like a brave new world after touching down from Venice
Labour has a conspiracy problem
Dawn Butler MP should reevaluate her eccentric ideas
A beguiling star who loved melodrama
Taylor’s hunger for money, flashy gizmos and flashier gewgaws found its echo in Burton’s need to forsake the classics
Could Esther Rantzen think twice on assisted suicide?
The gifts of life can be unexpected
The big picture
A story of modern Britain, a moral tale, of venality, hubris and fraud
Conservatives can no longer trust institutions
Institutions are only as effective as the people within them and the culture beyond them
The Royal British Legion’s day to forget
The “Pride poppy” demeans what should be a dignified occasion
An irreversible step
If Britain embraces euthanasia for the terminally ill, it won’t end there
Britain is at breaking point
The UK is experiencing existential challenges, but neither elitists nor populists offer a solution
Dungeons & Dragons made me
Was I a pudgy kid clutching pencils and a dice, or Dar Strongrip exploring a cursed castle?
Toasting a maestro
Stranded passengers emerged bewildered into the night of the living dead
The short lives and violent deaths of Sweden’s rappers
Swedish rap is a window into a violent underworld
