Issue: August/September 2024
The cinematic future is bright
“The End” is in sight for communal film-watching, right? Wrong
The melting pot that boiled over
Beirut was once a playground for the rich and famous, but now seemingly destined for decline
Why do we need a privacy elite?
The world has conformed to Silicon Valley’s way of doing business
The mean queens of the book world
A rare case of a “progressive” employee facing consequences will not change the publishing industry
Don’t shoot the piano man
A silent film pianist was blacklisted from the BFI for supporting J.K. Rowling
Terence Rattigan
The subtly subversive chronicler of Englishness still makes grown men cry
The Worlds of Marco Polo: The Journey of a Thirteenth-Century Venetian Merchant; Palazzo Ducale, Venice
For millennia all that was rare, exquisite, gorgeous and strange traversed the “Silk Road”
Rehabilitating an Edwardian genius
The sheer scale and diversity of Lutyens’ output is mind-blowing
Snapshot of the PM who killed his party
History is a wonderful guide to political practice in the present, just so long as nothing is different
From the monstrous to the grotesque
Hitler’s cult of charismatic leadership is indistinguishable from the ideology of National Socialism
Most Read
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
The lonely death of Henry Nowak
We must draw lessons from a horrendous and disgraceful case
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
A failed war on fags
The black market has taken over the tobacco trade Down Under
Sexy sisters and holy hotties
Less Sister Simper, more Attila the Nun
The real problem with rigmarole
A journalistic focus on proceduralism distracts us from deeper political questions
Can the army survive migration?
As Western militaries struggle to recruit young people, Britain may be turning to a familiar solution: immigration
Talent and temptation
William Walton: Two symphonies
Murders for May
From the spa resort of Buddington to the streets of Tokyo
Good news for the rule of law
Activists who break the law should not be able to appeal to their high-minded motives
Why are doctors special?
Doctors have a lot less to complain about than other workers
Taking the Sheen off
Shiny old lies remain the very bedrock of our trade
Our oriental roots
Marian Boswall salutes the early plant
hunters who revolutionised gardening
The resistible centrism of Mark Gatiss
Why a centre-left worldview struggles to understand dissent
Will we miss Mahmood?
Shabana Mahmood has been a voice of sanity in the Labour Party