Books
Seeing the big picture
The most enduring historical work reveals eternal truths about the human condition
The monster that lurks within us
The enduring popularity of fantasy and horror fiction proves that we still live in the long, dark shadow of the Gothic novel
Walking the path of the stupidly rich
Serious Money tracks the excesses and indulgences of those with wealth to burn
Professor Barry Mole: Scholarly Obsessive
Some things should stay buried
Going to the ends of the earth
A thrilling story of machismo, mutiny and madness in the Pacific
The Queen’s Jubilee Book List: why did they bother?
The choices show a lack of levity, imagination and courage
A Room with a Feud
What happened to robust — and, yes, rude — literary criticism?
Young Stalin’s unlikely London holiday
Stephen May’s new novel is a triumph of historical fiction
The Critic Books Podcast: The Golden Rule
In discussion with novelist Amanda Craig about her latest book
A bitter brew from darkest Peru
Iain Sinclair on the trail of his Victorian ancestor
Most Read
Tame Impala fails to impress
unconquered by a
taste of Crusader food
Gary Stevenson is wrong about wealth taxes
The popular economist is irritating, but more importantly he is mistaken
Why they hated Ann Widdecombe
Fair-minded people could agree or disagree with her opinions. Left-wing bigots hated her for not abandoning them
What is wrong now was wrong before
Julia Gillard should not pretend that the “unintended consequences” of the gender debate were unknowable
Ethnic minorities are abandoning Labour
It is not just Muslim voters who have been abandoning the Labour Party
What the Brits can learn from Ireland
A seriousness of intent, a sense of longevity and a feeling for history
Why Mali matters
Terrorism is spiralling out of control in West Africa
The book awards are a joke
The panel of non-literary judges shows just how frivolous the Nibbies are
The imprudence of Dame Prue
Dame Prue Leith is spreading errors about assisted suicide
The original sin
It should not have been difficult to see that there were problems with appointing Peter Mandelson
Beyond the binge
Let’s try subtlety
A criminal abuse of the law
Our criminal justice system is deferential to those who abuse it while coming down hard on the innocent
The Middle Kingdom and the middle powers
China’s clash with Western power shattered its civilisational self-image. Europe is heading for a similar reckoning
The vague vision of Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer was competent but directionless on foreign policy
No gods, no monsters
We should stop projecting our neuroses onto foreign leaders
Life for petty theft?
IPP sentences are a shocking stain on the criminal justice system that the Prime Minister would do well to kill off