Issue: March 2023
Going for a song
In true bel canto, the only important thing is the voice, the song
The dog won’t hunt
Why are we so dismissive of rural ways?
Bring back plain English
Most literary criticism is don addressing don, in a style designed to exclude ordinary people
Chasing champions
Potentially winning picks for the Cheltenham Festival
The roots of school rage
The closure of grammar schools entrenched privilege
Walled garden wines
Exploring a 2,000-bottle-a-year vineyard
Pains and pleasures of anticipation
The best sort of debut isn’t actually the author’s first book
Normandy’s English connection
The region combines ancient and modern splendours with an eye turned ever northwards
England’s fair and pleasant land
It’s not cricket; it’s the murky world of identity
How to be a ghost
Five elements to make a ghostwritten autobiography sing
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
It’s not a level pitch
Where did it all go wrong for Crystal Palace?
A bewitching Sink drama
Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe make Shakespeare compelling for Gen Z
The sacrifice that changed Naipaul
The humiliation of his father, forced to slaughter a goat to atone for
angering Hindus, made the writer wary of insulting religion
Time for change?
A new book might overstate the durability of Trumpian politics
We have to tame Big Tech
We must act to regulate social media before it does a lot more damage
North Korea’s rogue state development
How Kim Jong Un is embracing the modern world
The roots of hatred
Antisemitism, an ancient subject, has once again become a hot topic
Anti-gambling campaigners need a reality check
Affordability checks on punters are counter-productive
Worstall’s Corollary
Rare earths expose a fatal flaw at the heart of industrial strategy: governments intervene in systems they do not remotely understand
The underworld on the high street
Beneath the façade of everyday commerce, organised crime has quietly captured British high streets
Metamorphoses at the Rijksmuseum
Metamorphoses at the
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam