It doesn’t matter who runs the republican movement
But who runs the monarchists is critical
China’s role in Soviet policy-making
Stalin and his successors’ struggle with the US and China reflected conflicting Soviet ambitions to be a superpower and to lead world revolution, says Sergey Radchenko
‘Grand and isolated’: The Wolseley City, reviewed
I am fretting about this restaurant column’s election coverage and then I alight on something superficially grand and lovely, which…
The perils of going to Manchester United
Plodding up Wembley Way to the FA Cup Final at the weekend surrounded by a phalanx of well-refreshed Manchester United…
Dear Mary: how do I stop my book club banging on about their grandchildren?
Q. At the Ludlow Piano Festival, during a Tyler Hay concert, my husband and I spotted a fascinating-looking couple who…
Are you ready for the ‘Genny Lex’?
‘It sounds like Polari to me,’ said my husband, who can remember Julian and Sandy (Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams)…
Can the Tories avoid the fate of Canada’s Conservatives?
As the Conservatives edge closer to disaster in the general election, the hunt is on for a historical comparison. Tony…
Bury the Canaletto, now
I’m not on the guest list for the Duke of Westminster’s wedding, but I wish him luck anyway. Mind you,…
A tragedy waiting to happen: Tiananmen Square, by Lai Wen, reviewed
A moving coming-of-age novel sees a shy, introverted girl finding friends and freedom at Beijing university – until the authorities begin their murderous clamp-down
Letters: why the Tories need to lose
Back to blue Sir: What a pity your leading article (‘The valley of death’, 25 May) did not reach Downing…
Why experience beats flair at Goodwood
Faced with a field of 13 two-year-olds in the British Stallion Studs EBF Maiden Fillies Stakes at Goodwood last Saturday…
The not-so-French roots of chicken cordon bleu
We all have our quirks when it comes to cooking. I have clear mental blocks over what is and is…
The wry humour of Franz Kafka
A masterly new translation of his Diaries reminds us that Kafka wasn’t solely the prophet of a century of dehumanisation
An exclusive look at Graham Linehan’s Father Ted musical
The tree-lined streets of Rotherhithe are an odd place to unveil a West End musical. But this is a suitably…
Heroines of antiquity – from Minoan Crete to Boudica’s Britain
Daisy Dunn’s ‘history of antiquity written through women’ includes warrior princesses, scheming matriarchs, poets, priestesses and tragic nymphs
Visitants from the past: The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley, reviewed
An experimental project transports people across centuries. Lieutenant Graham Gore, an Arctic explorer whisked from the 1840s to present-day London, is not overly impressed
My summer of love with God’s gift
Studying in Russia in 1994, Viv Groskop falls in love with a Ukrainian rock guitarist named Bogdan Bogdanovich and accompanies him on a visit home
Arresting and memorable: Compagnie Maguy Marin’s May B reviewed
Samuel Beckett was notoriously reluctant to let people muck about with his work, so it’s somewhat surprising to learn that…
Who will my wife marry next?
Since I had a brush with death a couple of years ago, I have often wondered who my far younger…
Vote Rod!
It suddenly occurred to me that I need to stop dressing like a radical lesbian bag lady if I am…
The heyday of the gay guardsmen
In 1943 the music critic Desmond Shawe-Taylor placed an advertisement in Exchange & Mart offering a pair of trooper’s breeches…
