Laura Thompson
The Critic Books Podcast: Heiresses
Having a fortune is not quite all it’s cracked up to be
Diversion, disruption and distinction
Being memorable and sticky guarantees a novel a long and healthy life
The ghosts of Tory past
The Conservatives are haunted by the spirits of the last two decades
Are private schools worth it?
Parental background has a bigger impact than education
Murders for September
British detectives go abroad, as this month’s chillers take us from a fictional Spanish island to the Far East
Here be flagons
The temperance campaigners realised that a picture can achieve more than a thousand words of argument
The Conservatives have been too soggy, not too harsh
Their voters expected them to cut taxes and immigration — they did the opposite
A rollicking, great Kiss Me Kate
Musical and artistic brio can transcend the “problematic”
My Magyar dish
A dish that combines gravity with tradition, but is cheekily unorthodox
The vindication of Cass
An attempt to overturn restrictions on providing puberty blockers has failed