Issue: December-January 2026
A long shelf life
Our need for physical books is greater than ever
Recognition that small is beautiful
There is no reason why we can’t experience the quality of buildings at a small scale
Crime and Christianity
Dorothy L. Sayers may not have been the most assiduous warden, but she served her church in the best way she could
The future is Chinese
The Western art world lays the conceptual ground for a civilisational transition, then lacks the critical nerve to digest it
Coalhenge: Britain’s colossal wonders
The awe-inspiring cooling towers of our pensioned-off power stations should be preserved as monuments
Such stuff as dreams are made on
Common dream themes cut across vast differences in the waking lives of humans
Simon Raven
A controversial writer who could produce work as splendid as it was scurrilous
Booty and the green-eyed beast
What plays out as limpid tragedy on the page becomes trouser-dropping farce
Misguided mission to explain
How can James Payne teach us how to use our eyes when he shies away from stating visible truths?
Buyer knows best?
How to decode the winning formula of a successful art gallery
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
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
A memo crying in the wilderness
Why does the Church of England now sound like an HR department?
Farewell to a gentle jazz-lover
Scholarship trumps zealotry, particularly when it is veiled by modesty
What on Earth is the point of the Lib Dems?
With neither power nor principles, the party is an absolute waste of space
Bonfire of the fallacies
Two opposing ideas about hard power and foreign policy — legalism and nihilism — are being exposed by the Trump
administration
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is a masterclass in self-defeat
Labour’s tobacco crackdown will fuel crime, hurt retailers, and push smokers towards worse habits
What is anger for?
If young women are going to be radical, they need to make it worth it
A step forward for academic freedom
It is time to take the fight to censoriousness in higher education
Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law
Punishing anyone before they have even been convicted of anything makes me uneasy
The rise and fall of Star Trek liberalism
We should celebrate real-world achievement rather than identitarian fantasy
Jolly boating weather
The Gondoliers, English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire