Literature
Puckish polymath
Italo Calvino’s imagination spanned the cosmos but his concerns were very human
Lewis the prophet
The Narnia author deserves to be remembered as a seer and a sage
Political correctness contra aesthetics
Public life is becoming uglier, duller and more soul-destroying
Tolkien, 50 years on
The true scale of his legacy is gradually becoming apparent
Let children’s stories be children’s stories
We need more respect for the childhood imagination
A forgotten British great: Smelfungus
Now languishing in undeserved obscurity, Tobias Smollett should be remembered
The elegant extremist
Ian McEwan has always tempered his shocking stories with polished prose
The sludge of sensitivity
Politics is degrading our cultural classics
Twin totems of Teutonic angst
The German obsession with Goethe’s Faust and Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Think, write, publish
Russian literature is not bound to Russian politics
Most Read
The martyrdom of Young Bob
On ebbing power of the political influencer
Losing control of the narrative
The British establishment no longer sets the terms of public debate over migration
Grooming gangs and the truth
We should not give ammunition to deniers of the grooming gangs scandal
Babies need women
Leaving children with only men who are not their parents is foolish and dangerous
Stop ignoring the Islamisation of our democracy
The British state is bending to Islamism, not attempting to defeat it
Keep the state out of sex
Bureaucracy should not be allowed into the bedroom
What makes an American?
What characterises a US citizen in the 21st century, beyond abiding by the country’s laws and supporting its constitution?
Undramatic life of a literary also-ran
Malcolm Cowley never understood very much about literature
Grey expectations
Saving England’s native red squirrel will require harsh measures
Our new five-party system
First-past-the-post no longer means
an electoral carve-up between the
Tories and Labour, allowing “fringe”
parties real political influence
The right-wing case for social media
X and other platforms can be vital sources of unfashionable information and dissenting opinions
Not so good after all
Can left-leaning journalists finally acknowledge the challenges British society faces?
Brave new world or fools’ paradise?
For Dubai’s quarter of a million British expats, the Iran war is a mere blip in a luxurious lifestyle
How to get Britain building
A new policy paper proves that the government can beat bureaucratic sclerosis if it wants to
Antisemitism and the Islamic connection
Antisemitic sentiments in Islamic theology cannot be overlooked or obscured
Middle management in the Middle East
The war against Iran has emphasised the importance of deep leadership