Books
The joy of old English
Interest in language was once the domain of antiquarians and clergymen
Too many silences in this book about music
The hazy treatment of what “music” even entails falls flat
The blessings on our doorsteps
It is all too easy to forget the astonishing cultural wealth that lies close to hand in our medieval parish churches
Finding faith
Peterson spends great time and care examining a cornucopia of Biblical stories
Heroes, villains and lessons in life
Intellectual history, sneered at in Oxford 40 years ago, is all the rage there now
Libyans, Parisians and London Irish
Dry-ish, spare, clear-eyed — rare in a world of literary bloat, sentiment and overstatement
The golden age of criticism?
There are good reasons why serious writers no longer review in the national press
The big picture
A story of modern Britain, a moral tale, of venality, hubris and fraud
A passionate battler for buildings
A manichaean choice between the organic adaptation of old buildings and the beauty of the new
The restless life of a very bourgeois rebel
Gauguin was not an artist who lent himself to categorisation
Most Read
The Book of JO’B
James O’Brien’s aggressive incuriosity is becoming ever more embattled as his worldview crumbles
A failed war on fags
The black market has taken over the tobacco trade Down Under
Thank God for Brexit
The EU is a bureaucratic monster and Britain is better off out
I don’t trust the British state
British institutions simply are not functioning in the interests of the people they are meant to serve
The lonely death of Henry Nowak
We must draw lessons from a horrendous and disgraceful case
Reset as usual
Labour’s problem is not messaging, presentation or leadership — it is that the party lacks the appetite for the reforms Britain demands
Papal pressures
The Pope was well-received in Spain, but political tensions have been mounting
The name game
Nominative determinism is a rich seam to be mined in sport
A scarcity machine
Why Peckham residents should not celebrate development being blocked
It is time for antidisestablishmentarianism
Church establishment is still worth fighting for
When imitation is more then just flattery
An informative and entertaining history of plagiarism in its many forms
A moment of profound national unseriousness
Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch know that the world faces crises — but are they part of the crises?
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is a masterclass in self-defeat
Labour’s tobacco crackdown will fuel crime, hurt retailers, and push smokers towards worse habits
Kemi at the crossroads
Kemi Badenoch cannot tell everybody what they want to hear
Hard rain in Spain
Domestic scandal has rocketed back to the forefront of Spanish politics
Labour’s battle of egos
There is little love left to lose between those plotting regicide in Downing Street