Issue: May 2021
The lockdown boom in an empty room
Auction houses have enjoyed a stellar pandemic, but could their online success prove a curse?
Opiate of the masses
TV has become a branch of the pharmaceutical industry doling out heavy sedatives
Perceptive, witty and sure of himself
Beyond the embellishments of Alan Duncan’s private diaries lies a body of work making serious points about the role of parliament
Making of a modern monarchy
The reformed Royal family sailed unscathed through the mid-century crises of the abdication, the Depression and the Second World War
An unfair cop
The police cannot be trusted on hate crime
Renaissance prince
Wide-ranging interest and inquiry no longer seems compatible with those who bear the pressures of public life
The Man who saved the firm
The Duke of Edinburgh’s genius was to ensure that the more the Royal family changed, the more it appeared to remain the same
The men with the megaphone
A new history of movie directors is full of insight, felicitous phrases and subtle put-downs
Temple to craft and prestige
A beautiful and unusual book can lift the spirits of even the most jaded reviewer
Foreign frivolity
Robert Thicknesse on how the idea that foreign poetry was better than local soon became established dogma
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
Polish piano
Andre Tchaikowsky: Piano concertos (Ondine)
Slim down the university system to save it
It has become too bloated and too expensive
Rich portrait of a master poet
Auden, Peter Ackroyd
We’ve had enough agitslop
British TV drama has become an embarrassing display of liberal neuroses
Why do we still have social housing?
A decade working in Social Housing taught me that the sector’s perverse incentives guarantee the perpetuation of the very poverty it exists to eradicate
Reform’s man in Makerfield
An interview with Rob Kenyon about online controversies and national priorities
Can the army survive migration?
As Western militaries struggle to recruit young people, Britain may be turning to a familiar solution: immigration
A high-speed tour of European History
Europe: A New
History by Roderick Beaton
The testing of Giorgia Meloni
Italy’s first woman PM has proved a pragmatic conservative who has brought stability to her country
Tony Blair cannot escape politics
And our politics cannot escape from Tony Blair
Just a Prime Minister
Keir Starmer only seems to have one answer to his critics