Inside the long race for the Tory leadership
Conservative MPs who hoped for a relaxing summer break have had a nasty shock: their phones have been ringing on…
Do I have too many friends?
Can one have too many friends? I asked myself this question as we prepared yet another dinner party for ten…
Portrait of the week: Sir Keir’s tax warning, Russian air attacks and another prisons crisis
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, speaking in the garden of 10 Downing Street, warned that the Budget in…
The Stockhausen work that is worth braving
Grade: A- One of the best one-liners attributed to Sir Thomas Beecham refers to the stridently avant-garde Karlheinz Stockhausen: ‘I’ve…
What China wants from Russia
On the face of it, the ‘no limits’ partnership between Russia and China declared weeks before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine…
Is this Rachel Reeves’s idea of a programme for growth?
It is certainly true that the Labour party has been more than a little devious over the tax rises that…
The death of free speech in Britain
In Michel Houellebecq’s satirical novel Soumission, the French elite submits to Islamic rule rather than accept a National Front government.…
My time on Hinge
Back to work, back to school, back to politics: the French call it la rentrée and my own summer idyll…
The importance of copying
The lunatics were once in charge of the asylum. The first six directors of the National Gallery were all artists:…
My hopes for Africa
Lake Malawi As we speed southwards along the potholed road near Lake Malawi’s shores, I tell my colleague Helen that…
What ‘rot’ is Keir Starmer talking about?
With the elections over, it might be time to reflect on what Sir Keir Starmer means by ‘rot’ in the…
Why can’t I just buy a boardgame?
The little toy shop stood at the highest point of a steep winding lane of shops all painted different colours,…
What will become of George Orwell’s archives?
The news that a vast cache of material by and concerning George Orwell is about to be cast to the…
The unappetising truth about tasting menus
The tasting menu has fallen from fashion, and this is good. They are a curio – a window to the…
Save our steam engines!
Last week, if you’d known what to listen for, you might have heard a chorus of miniature whistles in gardens…
The Ava Gardner of the ketamine age: Lana Del Rey, at Leeds Festival, reviewed
As the American superstar starts singing another slow, sad, rather beautiful song, my mind begins to drift. I’m thinking that…
Afrikaners have been endlessly maligned
This I began writing two weeks ago as an overnight guest in a cosy cabin on a farm beside an…
The Terminator is still the best
The Terminator is James Cameron’s first film, made a star of Arnold Schwarzenegger, is celebrating its 40th anniversary – there’s…
Aggressively jaded: Edinburgh’s Marriage of Figaro reviewed
‘Boo!’ came a voice from the stalls. ‘Boo. Outrage!’ It was hard not to feel a pang of admiration. British…
Glamour or guilt? The perils of marketing the British country house
The most angst-ridden sub-category of the very rich – admittedly a lucky bunch to start with – must surely contain…
How big business pushed up vet bills
I was on my way to a Pilates class when I spotted Paul waving at me urgently from across the…
