Books
Why we’re in the state we’re in
Woolly thinking, cloudy expression, and the possibility that great matters are at hand: two books by a pair of Foreign Office grandees
Scheherazade scoops the pot
Women now dominate the literary landscape
Quackery via cartography
You better believe the earth is flat
Flawed analysis of illiberal culture
d’Ancona is guilty of the same kind of arrogance and bad faith he identifies in other liberals
Disappearing dreamlands
Is Europe losing its interesting edges as temperatures climb year by year?
Who wants to be a teacher?
Lucy Kellaway’s memoir is a must-read for anyone considering the profession
Vanishing worlds
Round-up: what do these books tell us about literary culture in 2021?
Castigating Britain
Could an editor not rescue Jonathan Haslam’s new book from triteness?
Publish — or be damned
There’s no wonder that books are becoming more conformist when freedom of expression is being curtailed
Muzzled in Moscow
Drawing on the author’s experiences, the book’s effect is akin to having a long pub chat with a knowledgeable journo
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
Grey expectations
Saving England’s native red squirrel will require harsh measures
Can we get removals right?
Deporting illegal migrants is a lot more difficult than promising to deport them
The games we play
Richard Holt’s sweeping survey of sporting history shows how games, from cricket to boxing, became one of Britain’s most durable cultural languages
A case for Classics
Eager minds are being failed by a smug and short-sighted cultural establishment
Britain lacks a party of the young
Britain’s alienated young are drifting leftwards because no serious movement on the right is speaking to their interests
The mirage of majesty
Royal charm cannot disguise Britain’s shrinking power in a transactional world
Andy Burnham’s immigration double game
Andy Burnham might make sceptical noises about mass migration but they mean nothing in practice
Devolution has been a disaster
Wales, and the United Kingdom at large, are weaker for the devolution project
The Farage flounce
A joke that worked, and an exit that didn’t.
Trump will not discredit Europe’s populist right
European populism is a lot deeper than mere Trumpism
The great American dream
Beware the lure of the vast US market