Culture
Take a leaf out of sport’s book
Music has lost its unpredictability, its thrilling fear while sport’s passion shines, says Norman Lebrecht
Uncool country
Country music has a frontline place in the culture wars, says Sarah Ditum
Britain’s strange fascination with serial killers
As crime dramas take over as the nation’s favourite television genre, Nigel Jones asks why we enjoy watching dramatic reenactments of sadistic murders
Hurst Castle could have been saved
Following the collapse of the sixteenth-century sea fort, Brice Stratford says that the disaster was completely avoidable
The idealisation of everyday life
Natascha Engel delves into Marc Stears’s new book, and asks: is there anything in here that will help us rebuild the Red Wall without losing our big city majorities?
Shock of the new
People are terrified of modernity’s great gift: the sudden freedom to make appalling noise, says Robert Thicknesse
Why are poor people so much nicer than rich people?
It’s a broad generalisation – but the author can only go off his extensive experiences bouncing between the developing and developed worlds
Why can Hollywood never get the King Arthur story right?
Like natural disasters, adaptations of the Arthurian legend seem to arrive about once a decade and leave devastation in their wake
Love, fame, power: the false allure of the celebrity politician
To truly achieve celebrity status and win a place in the nation’s affections you have to give up your political ambitions – just look at Ed Balls
Derailing the gravy train
The question of human rights, Christian morals and Western ethics has hitherto been an academic debate; now it is in the public arena