William Cook

Glory days: Charlotte Rampling at the lido in 1965

Ruislip Lido

29 April 2017 9:00 am

Most mornings, if I’m not too hung-over, I go for a run around Ruislip Lido — a mile there, through…

Rostock, in north Germany, joined the Hanseatic League in 1251. It has one of the oldest universities in Europe and was a major ship-building city for the Baltic

Europe’s best hope

29 April 2017 9:00 am

Go into any high street bookshop and find the European history section. There’s usually a shelf or two on France…

The suburban battleground

22 April 2017 9:00 am

In Westminster, all the general election chatter is about Brexit. Will Tory Remainers turn Lib Dem? Will Labour leavers desert…

Haus of ill repute

14 January 2017 9:00 am

Here in Munich, in the gallery that Hitler built, this year’s big hit show is a spectacular display of modern…

‘The Four Elements’, before 1937, by Adolf Ziegler, which hung above Hitler’s fireplace

Haus of ill repute

12 January 2017 3:00 pm

Here in Munich, in the gallery that Hitler built, this year’s big hit show is a spectacular display of modern…

Morocco: A match made in heaven

29 December 2016 3:00 pm

I’m sitting by the pool in a lush Moroccan garden playing chess with Nigel Short, and I feel like an…

Zurich’s wild side

26 November 2016 9:00 am

On the green edge of Zurich, where this neat and tidy city melts into neat and tidy countryside, an icon…

A visitor to Atlantis: Frank Zappa

Zurich’s wild side

24 November 2016 3:00 pm

On the green edge of Zurich, where this neat and tidy city melts into neat and tidy countryside, an icon…

Secrets of the universe

19 November 2016 9:00 am

A few years ago, in Berne, I visited the apartment where Einstein wrote his theory of special relativity, which changed…

Who comes after Merkel?

8 October 2016 9:00 am

A year from now, 60 million Germans go to the polls in the most important general election in mainland Europe…

Of microbes and men

2 July 2016 9:00 am

Which disease are you most scared of catching: Ebola or influenza? Before I read this medical memoir, I would have…

Without mankind, dogs wouldn’t stand a chance

What dogs are really up to

30 April 2016 9:00 am

Before I read this book, I thought I knew what a dog was. It barks, it wags its tail, it…

Confessions of a Saga lout

2 April 2016 9:00 am

Baby boomers like me aren’t giving up irresponsible hedonism as we age. We’re just getting worse at it

American nuclear weapons test at Bikini Atoll, July 1946

The frightening, fascinating, inspiring story of radiation

5 March 2016 9:00 am

About a century ago, scientists started meddling with an unfamiliar force of nature and the rest of us were terrified.…

Map of the Island of Utopia, book frontispiece, 1563

Even Corbyn would find Thomas More’s Utopia too leftwing

2 January 2016 9:00 am

Thomas More’s 1516 classic is a textbook for our troubled times, says William Cook

Lessons from Utopia

31 December 2015 3:00 pm

As anniversaries go, the timing could hardly be more apt. As Europe braces itself for the next Islamist attack, the…

Map of the Island of Utopia, book frontispiece, 1563

Lessons from Utopia

31 December 2015 3:00 pm

As anniversaries go, the timing could hardly be more apt. As Europe braces itself for the next Islamist attack, the…

My surreal Christmas in hospital with a dangerously ill child

12 December 2015 9:00 am

My surreal Christmas in hospital with a dangerously ill child

The Heckler: those who doubt the brilliance of Phil Collins are snobs

12 December 2015 9:00 am

Three boos for those rotten spoilsports who started an online petition against Phil Collins coming out of retirement (there’s already…

The Heckler: those who doubt the brilliance of Phil Collins are snobs

10 December 2015 3:00 pm

Three boos for those rotten spoilsports who started an online petition against Phil Collins coming out of retirement (there’s already…

The Heckler: those who doubt the brilliance of Phil Collins are snobs

10 December 2015 3:00 pm

Three boos for those rotten spoilsports who started an online petition against Phil Collins coming out of retirement (there’s already…

Power tool: Elisabeth Frink carving ‘Dorset Martyrs’, c.1985

The work of Elisabeth Frink is ripe for a renaissance

21 November 2015 9:00 am

In a converted barn in Dorset, not far from the rural studio where she made many of her greatest sculptures,…

On a British newspaper, Tintin would have been fired years ago

21 November 2015 9:00 am

Reading Tintin when I was a child, in Britain in the 1970s, I always assumed Georges Remi’s creation was just…

Power tool: Elisabeth Frink carving ‘Dorset Martyrs’, c.1985

Lost in space

19 November 2015 3:00 pm

In a converted barn in Dorset, not far from the rural studio where she made many of her greatest sculptures,…

Power tool: Elisabeth Frink carving ‘Dorset Martyrs’, c.1985

Lost in space

19 November 2015 3:00 pm

In a converted barn in Dorset, not far from the rural studio where she made many of her greatest sculptures,…