Sacred Cows
Samuel Beckett
A prize-winning old fraud
David Hockney: An oyster without grit
An oyster without grit
The House of Lords
The Rump Parliament had the right idea in 1649 when it closed down the upper chamber as “useless”
The New York Times
Bad times at the Grey Lady
Association Football: A great game gone to rot
The sport is now characterised by the conditioned reflex of dishonesty, the bleating of the wronged
Queen of Kitsch
Frida Kahlo: Her brand has quickly spread from cult to cliché
Fabricator and fraudster
Fabricator and fraud
A miserable specimen
The Natural History Museum seems to have lost faith in the ability of children to understand new concepts and facts
Trial by Jury
I should have known that expressing the slightest doubt about trial by jury would lead to public opprobrium
A little too mature
In Brideshead, the overriding feeling is that surely the punchline is to come. It never does
The dissident rebels of the art world
We must resist cancel culture and defend freedom of artistic expression
Letter from Washington: Who are America’s vaccine sceptics?
Party politics is only part of the story when it comes to vaccine hesitancy
Enid Blyton and the mystery of the blue plaques
The Famous Five react to Auntie Enid’s cancellation
What does “religious literacy” mean for free speech?
The APPG on Religion in the Media’s report into “religious literacy” in the media is deeply flawed in its understanding of Islam in particular
The bravery of big corporations
They don’t bother with the flag in their Arab outlets, because Islamic culture is far more progressive
The enduring appeal of the Mitford family
As the BBC’s adaptation of The Pursuit of Love begins, Alexander Larman questions whether the new dramatisation will do justice to Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel
Letter from Washington: Do Democrats really want to learn from 2020?
A supposedly honest election post-mortem is a symptom of the party’s problems
Murders for the summer holidays
Jeremy Black recommends a menagerie of disturbing animal-themed stories to entertain throughout the summer
What’s it like to have a home? Part I
In the 1980s, Britain closed most of its mental hospitals, and some of the patients became my friends
Contemporary writing with a twist and a tug
In this month’s fiction selection, John Self discovers novels that successfully use their style to enhance rather than simply describe the story