Books
An anaconda in the chandelier?
Benedict Rogers’ new book maps the vast network of repression propped up by China’s regime
Monetarily woke
A new book by Stefan Eich debunks the political neutrality of money
The game of laughter
A backstage look at stand-up comedy
Murders for the New Year
A dark start to 2023
Inescapable crisis
Have our worn-out imaginations reached their limits?
The fatal hubris of a ruthless fixer
Peter Stothard’s penetrating biography could not be more apposite in this age of political turmoil
Strongholds and strong women
Three non-fiction works beat out the general mediocrity of 2022
Standing tall on an uncluttered horizon
The best new fiction of 2022
The madness of crowds
Andrew Doyle has been warning about Critical Social Justice for years, and he kept the receipts
Anglican age of a thousand churches
The Church of England offered a necessary bulwark against the tempests of change
It’s the only one for me, nicotine
Once again, public health fanaticism is being prioritised over simple pleasures
Whisperings of the cruel sea
Britten: Concertos (Orfeo)
The Irish should reject the new hate speech bill
It threatens free speech while offering dubious benefits for society
Campus confidential
Inside the secret Cambridge societies hiding their unfashionable views
Ukraine cannot avoid partition
Ukraine must not capitulate and demilitarise, but de-facto partition is now an inevitability
Vibe supremacy
The right has a coolness problem, and Ben Shapiro rapping is not going to help
Josephine Tey, woman of mystery
Deeply private, her elegant and sharply engaging writing has often been wrongly overlooked
The Met is watching you
We are passively accepting the development of a society of hyper-surveillance
The Church of England is practicing a secular religion
Equality, diversity and inclusion can be prioritised over religious faith
Why we should resist this “conversion therapy” ban
It would enshrine dubious claims as unarguable facts, and it endangers freedom and young people
Entering the populist Pyongyang
Your correspondent watches the far right debate immigration — but will he go native?
