René Magritte
The scatalogical subversive
Magritte’s work is no more socially potent than dog-mess on a doorstep
Old Ireland stirs
The defeat handed to Dublin’s progressive establishment was a reminder of an older Ireland
Best bets for Cheltenham
My racing tips for Cheltenham
A cut above
Above all is the quietude, broken only by the snipping chatter of several scissors
Marshalling India’s maharajahs
Dethroned: The Downfall of India’s Princely States by John Zubrzycki
The true lie of the land
Landowners are reviled as enemies of the environment by the Jacobins of the green movement but these Poundland Robespierres are simply blinded by prejudice
It is they who will surrender
We have all of tomorrow’s excuses today
Playfulness and tedium
Stravinsky, Petrushka; Debussy, Jeux and Prelude (Decca)
Harry Potter and the bourgeois-bohemian dream
Looking back at the dreams and resentments of an ascendant class
You can’t judge a book by its cover
All novels should be like this: stripped of the necessary but boring connective tissue
What Britain should learn from Singaporean healthcare
How Singapore spends less and sees better outcomes
The crisis in the universities
A Critic panel brought light as well as heat to the troubled question of higher education
