History
Scandal, corruption and collusion: 300 years of British prime ministers
As this month marks a significant milestone in our parliamentary democracy, Nigel Jones says that sleaziness has an historic precedent at No. 10 Downing Street
How imaginative should historians be?
Professor Jeremy Black talks to Graham Stewart about archival research and the importance of source material
Hats off to the great British greasy spoon
Steve Morris celebrates the great British institution of the greasy spoon ‘caff’ and predicts that it will thrive again in a post-Covid world
Books you might have missed
Jeremy Black recommends three history books that have been neglected by literary reviewers
The Road and the fork-tongue rogues
Minoo Dinshaw fills in the gaps in an official guide to Scottish history
Thick as Thebans
Frederic Raphael reveals how Paul Cartledge makes the case for a central historical role for Oedipus’s home town
Take the slow train
Tom Chesshyre on the joy and rattle of Spain’s local lines
Wolverhampton wonderer
There is a lesson here for those who prefer to sharpen their knives on the whetstone of grievance
Mystery of the lost Rembrandt
Michael Prodger tracks the story of a lost masterpiece
Deeply flawed life of Cap’n Bob
Christopher Silvester reveals how this biography of Robert Maxwell is a skilfully constructed page-turner
Death by a thousand cuts
The near-invisibility of the Proms on BBC TV is a symptom of the collapse of public service broadcasting in Britain
The Critic
No they haven’t put the mag on the silver screen just yet, but its still worth watching
Nigel’s knees-up
Can Reform become a serious contender for power?
They call it Poppy love
Poppy is, simply, a dog who knows what she wants
Developing nations will be forced to choose
Sitting on the fence between China and the USA is unsustainable
Roger Scruton’s naive nationalism
Cultural nationalism is an ill-fitting model for the modern nation state
Tom Stoppard’s Hampstead drama
Best not try to memorise this deceptive Connect Four of relationships — just get into the flow
Leave our pubs alone
New public health proposals are missing the pint
Free speech defenders should practice what they preach
There should be no illiberal exception for anti-Zionist academics
The coming of age
On the anxieties and ambiguities of adulthood
Don’t trust the Runnymede Trust
The law is too indulgent of political charities
