Issue: March 2020
Pleasure and pain
Nick Cohen says the runner’s hardest task is knowing when to stop
Another Country
Fiona Duncan loves hotels that do things differently
Unleash this heavenly voice
The role of music in Jewish worship has acquired a sudden topicality with the involvement of two major record labels
Less austerity, more pizazz
Grand opera was long thought quite dead but is suddenly rearing its shaggy head again
Calculated absurdity
I want to listen to music that sounds like the dumb hopefulness of being young that I once couldn’t wait to rid myself of, says Sarah Ditum
The gender discount
Women may now account for 64 per cent of fine arts graduates in Britain but research shows the old values remain entrenched, says Michael Prodger
Blessed plot – or maybe not
“Albion” takes up the challenge of the moving goalposts of Brexit and social and economic fragmentation, says Anne McElvoy
Untrue story of the Kelly Gang
For a folk hero this Ned has zero contact with the ordinary Irish folk who will supposedly come to love him, says Christopher Silvester
Pure gold among the C4 dross
Adam LeBor strikes television gold
A one-sided view of history that neuters parliament
Brexiteers are right: parliamentary sovereignty is inextricably linked with national sovereignty
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
On a winning streak
Eventually streaks end, but it does not have to be The End
Reset as usual
Labour’s problem is not messaging, presentation or leadership — it is that the party lacks the appetite for the reforms Britain demands
Literature amid lies
Leonardo Sciascia sought justice in the face of cynicism
The man who knew too little
Faced with Mandelson, Starmer offers a bold defence: he didn’t know, and that’s what makes him blameless
The truth about Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was actually a black woman
Too starstruck to see Marilyn’s faults
Only Some Like It Hot endures, though not because of anything Monroe does in it
The pro-nature case for regulatory reform
England’s environmental regime hasn’t delivered a restoration of nature — only decline, delay, and bureaucracy
Cloaked Crusader
Richard I: valiant hero of Romance but also a perfidious, self-serving lord
The EU is changing on immigration
A firmer stance is being taken — but will it be enough?
Under the volcano
As Sicilians say, Mamma Etna gives more than she takes away
Britain must not liberalise surrogacy laws
We are already endangering women and girls