Book Review
Birth of a four decade nightmare
Time and again, Afghanistan has found its future decided from afar
Rhyme of the times
Within six weeks of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, most of Europe was at war
Modern echoes of ancient history
Stephen Kershaw may have taken accessibility too far in his classical account
A shapeless, moving, end in itself
So entropic is Geoff Dyer’s latest that the reader seeks desperately for structure
A prayer for the Holocaust dead
Extra-judicial killing and its long aftermath forms the core of Linda Kinstler’s remarkable new book
Thinkers, writers and storytellers
Narrative, voice and good novels — not always at the same time
Manifesto for how we love now
Louise Perry suggests that ancestral prudence is now lost among the youth
Murders for July
The good, the beautiful and the grotesque
Lifeless life of a Technicolor titan
Ronan McGreevy plumbs new depths with his pitiful accounting of a great man’s death
Maine attraction
There is better crime fiction being written
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
The lonely death of Henry Nowak
We must draw lessons from a horrendous and disgraceful case
Auntie’s autumn
Rather than wage war on the Beeb, a Reform government should strip it of its monopoly and force British broadcasting to compete again
On a winning streak
Eventually streaks end, but it does not have to be The End
Britain should speak up for Egypt’s persecuted Christians
We should oppose blasphemy laws at home and abroad
Censors create martyrs
Starmer has stumbled onto the fastest way to increase Hasan Piker’s audience
The pro-nature case for regulatory reform
England’s environmental regime hasn’t delivered a restoration of nature — only decline, delay, and bureaucracy
The imprudence of Dame Prue
Dame Prue Leith is spreading errors about assisted suicide
The Goodwin that failed
Pareto and the problem of elite circulation
Restoration romps
Purcell, The Musical, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
The BBC needs competition
The scandal-ridden Beeb is doomed if it is not held to higher standards
NATO needs the Germans to be up
European defence depends on a stronger Germany
We need a loud revival
The dream of a “quiet revival” always misunderstood the problem faced by British Christians