Book Review
Chapter and verse on the unknowable Bard
The striking thing about Sir Stanley’s Shakespeare is how unsexy he is
The meaning of laughs
In praise of Douglas Adams, a comedy legend
From the Trojan War to conflict in Ukraine
Rich insights into eras of incessant bloodletting
Time to ask “But what about the children?”
Not talking about the facts is counterproductive
Beyond the spires
Oxford is full of architectural riches
Murders for December
A cornucopia of killings for the Christmas season
One of these books is worth reading …
Their rhetoric is unhinged, yet still they preen
The Plot thins
Everything Dorries encounters proves how right she is
A.S. Byatt and the follies of magical progressivism
The late novelist understood the dangers of ego-centred delusions
Moving tribute to a richer time
On one tumultuous day, eleven men in strawberry-jam shirts wore crowns
Most Read
The establishment is still living in an immigration fantasy land
It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
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.
On Britain as a capitalist command economy
It is neither neoliberal nor socialist but a secret third thing
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
Light my fire
A perfect spy requires a spark for his cigarette
Murders for June
Bodies in Brighton and spies in Scotland are features of our first crop of summer murder mysteries
The limits of choice
Sometimes, we do know better than people who are harming themselves
Too starstruck to see Marilyn’s faults
Only Some Like It Hot endures, though not because of anything Monroe does in it
Has Donald Trump saved Pedro Sánchez’s career?
Criticism from the widely unpopular American president is a political boon for the Spanish prime minister
The strange birth of woo-woo
The glitzy LA supermarket chain and the Buddhist food cult behind your wellness smoothie
The emperor’s new AI
A satirical X account is doing what the media class has failed to do, and report on the great AI delusion
Sir David Attenborough at sea
RRS Sir David Attenborough is a ship worthy of the great man’s name
The welfare state of things
Tom Jones and Chris Bayliss discuss the numbers behind Britain’s welfare state
How the Boat Race sank
Yet another great British tradition is disappearing beneath the waters of history
There is nothing authentic about Andy Burnham
The blokeish Labour man is as slimy a politician as the rest of them