Books
Don’t worry, novelists are still envious and bitter
Unlike Douglas Murray, John Self thinks the satirical novel isn’t dead
In praise of political tittle-tattle
Lady Swire’s new memoir dishes the dirt on the Cameronian Government
The lost world of Rugby League
A new book celebrates 125 years of rugby league but shines a light on a world that the sport has left behind
Artists shaped by war
Practically all the artists in the book are traumatised in one way or another, and all experienced war
Decline, fall and rise again
A masterly account of Britain’s fortunes in the Second World War
Wandering women
The women who always walked alone
Greatest team we never saw
The controversial South African cricket tour of 1970
Love, work and whimsy
MacDonald Gill’s poster for the Empire Marketing Board helped promote a nation at the height of its powers
Small, but perfectly formed
John Self examines three varied, emotionally satisfying novels that together come in at less than the length of a single Mantel
Intellectual Red Bull
László Földényi’s essays are a collection that will leave you feeling sharp and more cultured, says Tibor Fischer
The future that never came
Post-war London was saved from a modernist masterplan
Why is the BBC so obsessed with drag?
Incessant coverage of drag shows and drag queens has become something of a running joke
Feminist rehab for mean girl Mahler
You’d have thought the Head Muse of old Vienna had enough on her plate
Who are the Scottish Conservatives?
The election of Russell Findlay to lead the Scottish Conservatives reveals a party that doesn’t know what it stands for
An orderly and civilised society
The biggest missing idea in British politics
The curious incuriosity of multiculturalists
We cannot blind ourselves to differences between people
Are we being misled on Georgia?
Claims of electoral fraud are serious — but they have not been substantiated
Consent isn’t everything
Protections against violent sexual encounters are being dismantled
How the Navy built Britain
Culmination of a magisterial work that entwines the story of the Royal Navy with the scientific, cultural and social history of our nation
Don’t bite the hand that feeds the birds
The government’s flawed biodiversity analysis endangers successful state-funded schemes
Why Ukraine almost certainly cannot win
And why the war is likely to continue anyway
