Books
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
Emerging from Sri Lanka’s lockdown: a morning at Colombo’s booksheds
A S H Smyth pays a visit to one of his favourite places in Colombo
Men and women and men
John Self reviews Sorry for Your Trouble by Richard Ford, This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill and Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
More plausible than real life
John Preston reviews Beneath the Streets by Adam Macqueen
The jokes must go on
Christopher Bray reviews Apropos of Nothing by Woody Allen
Me, Myself and I
The hip young authors who write about their greatest obsession – themselves
It ran in the family
Alexander Larman reviews Fall of the House of Byron, by Emily Brand
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
I don’t trust the British state
British institutions simply are not functioning in the interests of the people they are meant to serve
Venice Biennale 2026
Collected detritus of Biennales past, left available for recycling when there’s space to fill
Burying their heads in the ash
The battle against the illicit tobacco market has not been won
Has the arts sector learned nothing?
Tripling down on identity politics and censoriousness would be fatal
Our first Catholic prime minister?
Andy Burnham’s religious background has a subtle but deep historical significance
Thank God for Brexit
The EU is a bureaucratic monster and Britain is better off out
Worstall’s Corollary
Rare earths expose a fatal flaw at the heart of industrial strategy: governments intervene in systems they do not remotely understand
Reform’s man in Makerfield
An interview with Rob Kenyon about online controversies and national priorities
AI and the Jefferson Option
Eighteenth-century advice on surviving the AI apocalypse
On Britain as a capitalist command economy
It is neither neoliberal nor socialist but a secret third thing
The decline of British food culture
The products of social media virality and high street homogenisation leave the ambitious diner as cold as a neglected jacket potato