As David Cameron’s powers wane, he will struggle to secure the legacy he wants
The Prime Minister only has himself to blame for his accelerated decline.
By
The making of a monster
Take me back to where De Quincey met his hero – and I tried to shake off the devil
If the past is another country, it’s one the boundaries of which are ever shifting, as entire features dissolve in…
By
Boris’s taxes, Justin Welby’s posh paternity and how the left can rescue inheritance tax
David Cameron is remarkably adept at getting out of trouble.
By
How Donald Trump is legitimising torture
Trump is willing to trample on a quarter of a millennium of moral thinking and democratic taboos on torture.
By
Thirteen going on fifty: Julie Burchill finds her teenage self in Jackie the Musical
People can be sniffy about jukebox musicals but in my opinion they are infinitely preferable to overblown and pretentious…
By
“The Diamond Pane”: a poem by Kathleen Jamie
"I, my mother’s daughter, / took up a pen, hard-nibbed / and therefore equal / to the task. .…
By
Teach yourself Dwarvish: behind Tolkien’s invented languages
From sound aesthetic to Finnegans Wake, a new book explores Tolkien's relationship to language.
By
Working as a diarist meant not caring about the people you hurt
When I was a diarist, I survived by becoming two things: a serious alcoholic, and facetious.
By
The Returning Officer: Holderness
Aline Mackinnon stood for the Liberals in Holderness in the 1931 and 1935 elections and in a 1939 by-election…
By
From being a “B52 liberal” to the crisis of young Europeans
My week in European politics, from London to Rome - via Berlin.
By
Only yourself to blame: how stigma is making us fatter
Interacting with health-care professionals has been a long-standing problem for obese people. It's time to tackle the question of…
By
How a 2010 air crash is still dividing Poland
The conspiracy theories around the Smolensk crash continue to unsettle Polish politics six years' later.
By
Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts is moving in every sense of the word
This American memoir is a portrait not only of marriage and motherhood, but of gender identity in flux.
By
Men for all seasons: how David Szalay condenses a lifetime into a year
Not all of the protagonists in All That Man Is are admirable, or even likable - but it pulls us completely…
By
Jaco Van Dormael is a director for the Buzzfeed generation
The Brand New Testament is full of precis and lightning-fast recaps. In the era of listicles, perhaps Van Dormael’s…
By
A hundred and fifty feet above Hyde Park is a scene of glory and bloodlust
An email arrives from my contact at English Heritage. Would I like to go up to the top of…
By
A turning point for rock and roll? Why 1971 was pivotal
1971: Never a Dull Moment by David Hepworth reveals the year when the singer-songwriter overtook the band - and…
By
What would society look like with universal basic income?
It may seem blasphemous to neoliberals, but a universal basic wage may be the only choice we have.
By
For a man who supposedly cannot win, Bernie Sanders is doing pretty nicely
Sanders has shown that you can make a serious run for the presidency without corporate cash.
By
The unbridled, feral strangeness of Camping is the funniest thing I’ve seen in years
Julia Davis's superbly twisted writing has created a gem. Plus: Scott & Bailey reviewed.
By
The sportsmen who can lose games – but not their hair
Why do men try to hide their bald spots? Is it vanity, pride, the fear of being seen as less…
By
Chernobyl and the ghosts of a nuclear past
A Nobel laureate captures the beginning of the “age of disasters”.
By
For the love of God: how Rowan Williams illuminates the philosophy of St Augustine
What Williams shows, in essay after essay, is that Augustine’s conversion to Christianity changed everything.
By
Meet the women bringing the kitchen to Wikipedia
Most food throughout history has been cooked by women - “but if you can’t name them, they get forgotten”.
By
Commons Confidential: Don Tony’s blessing
From Jeremy Corbyn's jam sales to the Godfather of the Labour Party.
By
The fabulous weirdness of Martin John – a novel composed by its protagonist
Martin John by Anakana Schofield is formulated by the endless tinkering and fiddling of its outsider narrator.
By
The complicated Jewishness of Benjamin Disraeli
Disraeli: the Novel Politician by David Cesarani reveals the complex identity of the Tory icon.
By