In the grip of apocalypse angst
Dorian Lynskey lays out the many ways in which we have imagined the world ending – through pandemic, nuclear holocaust, climate change, asteroid impact or, most unnervingly, AI
‘Can’t help but exude warmth’: Paper Moon at the OWO, reviewed
Paper Moon is the Italian restaurant inside the Old War Office on Whitehall, now a hotel called Raffles London at…
Letters: screens in schools are not a problem
Screen tests Sir: As somebody whose teaching career coincided with the digital revolution, I must take issue with Sophie Winkleman’s…
Why Thames Water is the pariah of post-privatisation capitalism
‘It would have been ideal not to have so much poo in the water,’ said Oxford captain Leonard Jenkins after…
Sir Roger Casement never deserved to hang
Executed as one of the leaders of the Easter Rising, he was absent from Dublin at the time of the doomed insurrection – and actually tried to prevent it
What would the Romans think of assisted suicide?
What a song and dance about the end of life! Historians assure us that, among human beings, there is a…
Tricky but delicious: how to make the perfect pretzels
My husband is obsessed with pretzels. The joy that a slightly warm, soft baked pretzel brings him is disproportionate. And,…
Could J.K. Rowling be Oxford’s next chancellor?
Among my generation of Oxford graduates – late fifties, early sixties – there is currently a great deal of talk…
County cricket needs Bazball
It’s freezing cold and everywhere is flooded, so it must be the start of the county cricket season. Surrey, last…
Bridge | 6 April 2024
Easter always zips by if you’re a bridge player and enter the EBU’s Easter Festival. There are four events to…
The desperate desire to belong: England is Mine, by Nicolas Padamsee, reviewed
A teenage victim of bullying is gradually drawn into a world of online extremism in this entirely relatable story of the adolescent yearning for acceptance
Turf wars in Las Vegas: City in Ruins, by Don Winslow, reviewed
The concluding volume of the Danny Ryan trilogy sees the gangster hero involved in a bitter feud over the purchase of a crumbling property on the Las Vegas Strip
‘Now I have been made whole’: Lucy Sante’s experience of transition
Until the age of 66, Sante lived as a deeply divided man. In this story of self-realisation, she describes how transitioning finally ‘lifted the veil’ over her existence
Why I’ll never own a pair of jeans
North Korea has a problem with Alan Titchmarsh’s crotch. Last week a 2010 episode of Garden Secrets was aired on…
What a super-majority means for Labour
When the last Tory government fell, the famous question after election night was: ‘Were you up for Portillo?’ Were you…
Exhilarating: MJ the Musical reviewed
If you’ve heard good reports about MJ the Musical, believe them all and multiply everything by a hundred. As a…
Could Sadiq Khan lose London?
With Labour 20 points ahead in the national polls, a lot of Tories have already written off next month’s mayoral…
The London Library should leave us in peace
Reading only slightly between the lines of US foreign policy on Israel/Gaza, I detect that its most urgent aim is…
How on earth does Rishi Sunak keep going?
It’s my birthday this week and the end of my seventh decade (mathematicians will note that this does not make…
Portrait of the Week: hate crimes, surprise knighthoods and flaming rickshaws
Home The Hate Crime and Public Order Act came into effect in Scotland, making it a crime to communicate or…
Britain’s role in ending the slave trade ought to be celebrated
It was bound to happen sooner or later: a guest on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow presented an artefact which derived…
