In the end, the Remainers will win. The powerful always do
Before the referendum, I predicted behind closed doors that even if Leave improbably prevailed, Britain’s political establishment would ensure that…
You don’t win an argument by getting personal
‘If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant,’ Democratic Representative Maxine Waters railed to a California rally last…
A reply to my critics: Don’t fight racism with racism
Dear 2016 WriteNow mentees, Thanks so much for your open letter to me. It seems only good manners for me…
When diversity means uniformity
I’d been suffering under the misguided illusion that the purpose of mainstream publishers like Penguin Random House was to sell…
I like a fight too much. That’s why I’ll never go on social media
During a dozen years in Belfast I collected a number of political coffee mugs, hailing from both sides of the…
The Irish border is the EU’s problem, not ours
In deference to public exhaustion, I’ve largely avoided Brexit in this slot. But a columnist’s output ought rightly to echo…
The Home Office nearly deported my husband
What I remember about preparing to leave for my husband’s appointment with the Home Office in Croydon in 2007 is…
Why catastrophising is my idea of a good time
When, on a test of general knowledge, the highly educated score far worse than chimpanzees, university degrees may be overrated…
Can you prove you’re not a racist?
After an essay in this month’s Prospect about literature and freedom of speech, it seems I was cited on Twitter…
How mass immigration drives the housing crisis
Ever since Theresa May’s clarion address of the UK’s housing shortage (and how many successive PMs have embarked on the…
The all give and no take of US taxes
Last week, the New York Times ran a very un-New-York-Times-y article, ‘Resentment Grows Over Who Gets Health Care Aid’. It…
Why not ban artists who forget to feed their cats or recycle?
Sometimes a picture — the big picture — is worth more than a thousand words. Consider this Art vs Artist,…
Ikea’s real genius is making furniture disposable
By all accounts, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad was my kind of guy: may he rest in peace (on an Askvoll…
I recycle – then lie to myself that I’m saving the planet
‘I just want to say one word to you, just one word. Are you listening? Plastics.’ That iconic punch line…
Why cryptocurrency is the answer
The craze for cryptocurrency can be explained by a host of factors: the allure of getting rich quick; the attraction…
A purity test for artists is the end of art
However we keep ourselves amused over the holidays this year, two sources of entertainment are off the docket. Amid the…
This £50 billion EU ‘divorce bill’ is more like a ransom
A ‘bill’ is not commonly subject to negotiation. It arrives after a customer has contracted for the purchase of goods…
Security overkill is terror’s real triumph
The moment the news broke on Halloween that an Uzbek in a rental truck had just killed eight people on…
When did fiction become so dangerous?
The assignment of books for review has always been haphazard. Fellow fiction writers can be tempted either to undermine the…
The young oppress their future selves
Matt Ridley’s fine recent Times column was hardly the first to raise the alarm about the pseudo-Soviet intolerance of the…
Say nothing
To my embarrassment, ever since my novel We Need to Talk About Kevin was published in 2003, I’ve been a…
At this rate, we’ll have to rename New York
Growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina, I took the monuments around the state capitol for granted. The first Confederate soldier…
Diary
On the heels of the Today programme’s invitation to discuss ‘cultural appropriation’ (again), the New York Times reported the disheartening…
Diary
Novelists can’t merely tell cracking tales. We’re supposed to save the world. At the University of Kent, a student implored…
Diary
Novelists can’t merely tell cracking tales. We’re supposed to save the world. At the University of Kent, a student implored…
