Features
The ring master
Bullfighting was a lifelong fascination for Francis Bacon and played an increasingly important role in his work, his high-risk approach matching that of the matador
Arthur Bryant’s floating doters
W. Sydney Robinson, the historian’s latest biographer, discovered that his subject was without scruple in matters of the heart
A kind of loving
Lincoln Allison is moved by a cache of his father’s wartime love letters and what they reveal about conflict, his parents’ relationship — and a huge generational chasm
You can’t make it up
Lisa Hilton asks whether Twitter mobs should be able to police the imagination of novelists and playwrights
Through a glass, darkly
Nick Cohen on the ill-starred but seductive love affair between writers and alcohol
Fantasy of the magic money tree
Central banks will come under increased pressure to “do good” by politicians
Reclaiming the altar of wokery
Laurence Fox has better credentials for engaging with the woke generation than the average Tory MP
Michel Foucault: the prophet of pederasty
Daniel Johnson says the fact that Foucault scholars now overlook his advocacy for sex with boys shows the great libertine failed to overturn Judaeo-Christian morality
Tragedy of the little Darlings
The relationship between J.M. Barrie and the real life Peter Pan was fatherly, friendly and perhaps something else
The Road and the fork-tongue rogues
Minoo Dinshaw fills in the gaps in an official guide to Scottish history