Books
The demise of the second-hand bookshop
Why Oxfam bookshops, as tremendous as they are, may be the end of the second-hand bookseller
Footnoting the Belfast Agreement’s invisible annex
Owen Polley reviews Breaking Peace: Brexit and Northern Ireland by Feargal Cochrane
How I discovered secondhand books
A home with books is a launching pad for a life well lived, says Daniel Johnson
How to cheat the bestseller list
Buying your way into the book charts is more widespread than you might think
Miss Havisham on heroin
Natasha Green reviews Kitty Peck and the Music Hall Murders, by Kate Griffin
Billy Liar was fiction’s first OCD hero, yet nobody noticed
Rev Steve Morris revisits Keith Waterhouse’s forgotten classic
Brideshead Revisited at 75
In its combination of glacial beauty and lovelorn desperation, Brideshead Revisited speaks to all readers, Alexander Larman writes
Closing the books
Thomas Woodham-Smith finds the latest research is online
Our friends in court
John Bowers reviews “Enemies of the People?” by Joshua Rozenberg
Should we listen to writers about their own work?
As Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads is set to air this evening, Alexander Larman ponders the relationship between a living writer and their works
Italian lessons
On matching the sauce to the pasta
The misanthropic history man
Yuval Noah Harari has become an intellectual superstar, but his predictions have become wilder and sillier
Rugby’s debt to Mrs T
Rugby league was transformed from a fringe working-class activity into part of national life
Why this new book will pass unnoticed
Columnist Steve Sailer’s views on genetics and IQ have placed him beyond the pale for bien pensant reviewers
W.S. Gilbert
A wildly funny and slyly subversive comic genius who deftly skewered the mores of Victorian England
How widespread is NHS qualifications fraud?
A viral Twitter post raises uncomfortable questions about the level of training in British institutions
Giants and pygmies
Some stop-gap leaders of the opposition were never intended to be potential prime ministers
Joe Biden needs a Reagan moment
It is time not just for strong words but for serious demands
How NatCon was saved
An attempted cancellation flopped in Brussels — but the bad taste remains
Attack is the best form of defence
The right cannot always be fighting a rearguard action in the culture wars
London’s lamps live on
Thanks to the dedication of the Gasketeers, a beautiful tradition has been saved
