Books
Scratches in the stonework of history
A new history of graffiti and rebellion is less light and bawdy than one may have expected
Who edits the editor?
The bright young things of publishing want to be involved in every line of every new book
Murders for April
April is the cruellest month, breeding detective fiction out of the dry land
When classicists attack classics
Sanskrit isn’t the only ancient language to be affected by academic imperialism
Very public introspection
The content of “misery lit” is disturbing, but what purpose does it serve?
He’s not the messiah, he’s a transwoman
Transsexual Apostate is a disturbing book, written for disturbing times
Parklife people
This book has a brilliant premise but, frustratingly, it doesn’t quite work
Man of letters: reading between the lines
Byron: A Life in Ten Letters by Andrew Stauffer
A wealth of Irish architecture
Editorial errors do not spoil a fine work of Irish architectural history
How not to investigate the origins of Covid
Wuhan: How the Covid-19 Outbreak in China Spiralled Out of Control by Dali L. Yang
No interest in national interests
The government is not putting Britain first
The problem with Rachel Reeves’s pension pretensions
Bigger funds are not the key to effective investments
The effects of Brexit are still being misreported
A new paper has received a lot of attention — all of it undeserved
Shiva Naipaul
The younger brother of a controversial Nobel Prize winner who has been unjustly overlooked
Sports inequity
Modern academia wants us to believe six impossible things before breakfast
Don’t bet on green energy
Groupthink has blinded us into backing solar and wind. Will a big short make us see sense?
“Bold vision”
An action or choice can perfectly well be bold without being good
The US city on the banks of the Thames
Critics don’t care for Canary Wharf, considering it a monument of 1980s corporatism
Graduation blues
On the sad decline of the British university
Could there be a Reform revolution?
Reform’s Welsh Conference brimmed with optimism — but can that be translated into success?
The triumph of Irish populism
The three major parties went with what is popular, rather than what is right
