All boys should own a Swiss Army knife
Last week, Carl Elsener of Victorinox, makers of the Swiss Army knife (all other manufacturers must refer to their products…
Nowhere near as miserable as I remember it: The Beatles – Let It Be reviewed
Beatles lore has long held that the film Let It Be was a depressing portrait of the band falling apart.…
The early tragedy of the flat season
The Flat season proper has opened with an almighty shock and a cruel tragedy. First City of Troy, the latest…
The woman who revolutionised British fashion: Barbara Hulanicki interviewed
‘I was one of your original customers in Kensington Church Street,’ I tell the founder of Biba when we meet.…
Is pro-golf eating itself?
Spare a thought for Manchester United’s Erik ten Hag. He’s got a fairly crummy, injury-hit team who appear to have…
Confessions of a catnapper
As Christopher Snowdon recently pointed out, the past few governments have had a habit of passing laws that are either…
Beguiling: Yinka Shonibare, at the Serpentine Galleries, reviewed
More than seven centuries ago, the medieval cartographer Richard of Haldingham created Hereford Cathedral’s Mappa Mundi; I say ‘created’ because…
Dear Mary: how should I thank a friend for dead flowers?
Q. I left fashion school last year and since then I’ve spent most of my time applying for jobs and…
Meet the man who says improvisation is the key to Mozart
In August 1993, the pianist Robert Levin sat down in Walthamstow Assembly Rooms with the conductor Christopher Hogwood and the…
Predictable but has a certain French verve: Two Tickets to Greece reviewed
Within the first five minutes of Two Tickets to Greece you know what it is and where it’s going. It’s…
Can you ‘go gangbusters’?
‘Is it anything to do with cockle-picking?’ asked my husband, confident he was on the right track. Naturally he wasn’t.…
Britain should embrace the AI revolution
Rishi Sunak’s big speech this week was easily lampooned. Having accused Keir Starmer of ‘doomsterism’, the Prime Minister warned that…
Portrait of the Week: Natalie Elphicke defects, wages rise and Switzerland takes Eurovision
Home The parliamentary Labour party shook itself uneasily after Natalie Elphicke, the MP for Dover, crossed the floor of the…
I feel for my Jewish friends
‘So what you’re telling me,’ said the priest to the builder boyfriend, ‘is that you were brought up by Irish…
The day Keir Starmer cried on me about his childhood
I have had a good idea. It may even be an important idea. See what you think. The other day…
Gangs of Tehran: how Iran takes out its enemies abroad
‘It was Friday afternoon, around 2.45. I came out of the house and was going towards the car on the…
Will Labour fall into the migration trap?
Brexit was the issue that won the last general election for the Tories but botching it may well lose them…
Fawlty Towers – The Play is the best museum piece you’ll ever see
Fawlty Towers at the Apollo may be the best museum piece you’ll ever see. A full-length play has been carved…
What makes MPs special
On Monday, the House of Commons passed, by one vote, a motion to allow MPs to be suspended from parliament…
Shabana Mahmood: The disgraceful treatment of Kate Forbes
It was like a scene from the Blair government: a minister admits inmates are being released before their sentence ends,…
Veep show: who will Trump pick for his running mate?
We are in the fifth week of Donald Trump’s ‘hush money’ trial and the real scandal is that it’s all…
Can Starmer and Reeves add some fizz to the economy?
If the 0.6 per cent first-quarter GDP uplift reported by the Office for National Statistics is sustained for the rest…
